OLD FAMILY LETTERS: COPIED FROM THE ORIGINALS FOR ALEXANDER BIDDLE. " We can sometimes get a better idea of a man's character from the letters he receives than from the letters he writes."-SOUTHEY. " Contemporary letters are facts."-Cardinal Newman. SERIES A. PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. 1892. Copyright, 1892, by Alexander Biddle. PREFATORY. Washington 8th April 1814. Sir,-Enclosed is the extract which I mentioned to you, as a document which ought to be placed in the archives of your venerable father, & our highly & respected friend the late Doctor Rush. The extract is from a letter of Mr. Adams late President of the United States, of the 26th of April last; & expresses an opin- ion in unison with my own. Accept my best wishes ; yours sincerely & respectfully E. Gerry. Richard Rush Esq. Attorney General of the United States. EXTRACT. " A few facts I wish to put upon paper, & an awful warning to do it soon has been given me by the sudden death of our Friend Rush. Livingston & Clymer had preceeded him in the same year, the same spring. How few remain. Three in Massachusetts I believe are a majority of the surviving signers of a Declara- tion, which has had much credit in the World. "As a man of Science, Letters, Taste, Sense, Phi- losophy, Patriotism, Religion, Morality, Merit, Useful- ness, taken all together, Rush has not left his equal in America; nor that I know in the World. In him is taken away, & in a manner most sudden & unexpected, a main prop of my Life. Why should I grieve, when grieving I must bear." OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Worcester October 12th. [I believe] 1755. Dear Sir,-All that part of Creation that lies within our observation is liable to change. Even mighty States and Kingdoms are not exempted. If we look into History, we shall find some Nations rising from contemptible beginnings and spreading their Influence, till the whole Globe is subjected to their sway. When they have reached the summit of Grandeur, some minute and unsuspected cause, commonly effects their ruin, and the empire of the world is transferred to some other Place. Immortal Rome was at first but an insig- nificant village, inhabited only by a few abandoned Ruffians, but by degrees it rose to a stupendous height and excelled in Arts and Arms all the Nations that preceded it. But the demolition of Carthage, [what one should think would have established it in supream Dominion] by removing all danger, suffered it to sink into Debauchery and made it at length an easy prey to Barbarians. England immediately upon this, began to increase, [the particular and minute causes of which I am not Historian enough to trace], in Power and Magnificence, and is now the greatest Nation upon the Globe. Soon after the Reformation, a few People came over into this new world for conscience sake. Perhaps this, apparently, trivial incident may transfer 5 6 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. the great seat of empire into America. It looks likely to me. For if we can remove the turbulent Gallicks, our People according to the exactest Computations, will in another Century, become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the Case, since we have I may say, all the Naval Stores of the Nation in our hands it will be easy to obtain the Mastery of the seas, and then the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us. Divide et impera. Keep us in distant colonies, and then some great Men in each Colony, desiring the Monarchy of the whole, they will destroy each others influence, and keep the Country in equilibrio. Be not surprised that I am turned Politician. This whole Town is immersed in Politicks. The Interests of Nations and all the Dira of War, make the subject of every conversation. I sit and hear. And after having been led through a maze, of sage observations I sometimes retire, and by laying things together, form some reflections pleasing to myself. The Produce of one of these Reveries, you have read above. Different employment and different objects, may have drawn your Thought other Ways. I shall think myself happy, if in your turn you communicate your Lucubrations to me. I wrote you sometime since, and have waited with im- patience for an answer, but have been disappointed. I hope that Lady at Barnstable has not made you forget your Friends. Friendship, I take it, is one of the distinguishing Glories of Man. And the Creature that is insensible of its Charms, tho' he may wear the shape of Man, is unworthy of the Character. In this perhaps we bear a nearer resemblance of embodied OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 7 Intelligences, than any thing else. From this I expect to receive the chief Happiness of my future Life ; and am sorry that Fortune has thrown me at such a distance from those of my Friends who have the highest Place in my affections. But thus it is, and I must submit. But I hope, e'er long, to return and live in that happy familiarity that has from earliest Infancy subsisted between yourself and affectionate Friend John Adams. Addressed to Mr. Nathan Webb at Braintree. [The following is appended as a foot-note to the above letter dated Worcester, October 12, 1755.] Quincy April 22. 1807. Nathan Webb was the son of the late Deacon Jona- than Webb of Quincy and the Grandson of Benjamin Webb of the same Place. The Father and Grandfather were intimate Friends of my Father and Grandfather, and the son was my Playfellow at the Grammar School in Braintree and my Contemporary at Colledge. He had Wit, humour and good Nature equal to his under- standing and Judgment which were very good. He died young and I attended him in his last sickness with equal Grief and assiduity and watched with him the night or two before his death. He left this letter and some others in Possession of his Father who left it with his whole Estate to his Nephew, Captain Jonathan Webb now of this Town living in the old seat of the Family, who about a fortnight ago was kind enough to send it to me, after it had lain fifty one years and an half among the Papers of the Family, in oblivion. It was written soon after I took my first degree at Colledge, 8 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. and some days before I was twenty years old. Nathan was named after his uncle Nathan Webb the Minister of Uxbridge who married my Fathers Sister. John Adams. Philadelphia July 9. 1776. Dear Sir,-Yours of the 5th. came to me the 8th. You will see by the post, that the River is past and the bridge cut away. The Declaration was yesterday pub- lished and proclaimed from that awefull stage in the State House Yard; by whom do you think? by the committee of safety, the committee of inspection, and a great crowd of people. Three cheers rended the Welkin. The Battailion paraded the common, and gave a Feu de Joy notwith- standing the scarcity of powder. The bells rung all day, and almost all night. Even the chimers chimed away. The Election for the city was carried on amidst all this hurry with the utmost decency and order. Who are chosen I cannot say, but the List was Franklin, Writtenhouse, Owen Biddle, Cannon, Schlosser, Mat- lock and Khull. Thus you see the effect of Men of fortune, acting against the sense of the People. As soon as an American seal is prepared I conjecture the Declaration will be subscribed by all the members ; which will give you the opportunity you wished for, of transmitting your name among the votaries of Inde- pendence. I agree with you that we can never again be happy under a single particle of British power; indeed this sentiment is universal. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 9 The arms are taken down from every public place. The army is at Crown Point. We have sent up a great number of ship-wrights to make a respectable fleet upon the Lakes. We have taken every measure to defend New York. The Militia are marching this day in a great body from Pensylvania. That of Jersey has behaved well: turned out universally. That of Connecticut, I was told last night by Mr. Huntingdon, were coming in the full number demanded of them, and must be there before now. We shall make it do, this year, and if we can stop the torrent, for this Campaign, it is as much as we deserve for our Weakness & Sloth, in Politicks, the last. Next year we shall do better. New Govern- ments will bring new Men into the Play, I perceive, Men of more mettle. Your motion last fall, for sending embassadors to France, with conditional instructions, was murdered, terminating in a committee of secret Correspondence, which came to nothing. Thank you for the paper and Resolves. You are atoning for all past imperfections, by your vigour, spirit and unanimity. Send along your militia for the flying Camp ; dont let them hesitate about their harvest. They must defend the field before they can eat the fruit. I shall enclose to you Dr. Price-he is an independant, I think. My Compliments to Mr. Johnson, Mr. Carroll, and all your Friends whom I have the honour to know, and believe me to be &c. John Adams. Mr. Chase. 10 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Braintree February 8. 1778. My dear Sir,-Two Days ago, I was favoured with your polite and elegant Letter of January 22. I have recd. so many of your Letters within a few Months, containing such important matter, in so masterly a style, that I am ashamed to confess I have answered but one of them, and that only with a few Lines. I beg you would not impute this omission to inattention, Negligence, or want of Regard, but to its true Cause a Confusion of Business. I beg leave to assure you that I hold your Correspondence inestimable, and will do every Thing in my Power to cultivate it. Whether I shall be able to render any valuable service to our Country in tny new Capacity, or not, is to me very uncertain : all I can say with Confidence is, that whether in that, or any other, I will never knowingly do it any Injury. In spight of all the Reflections that are cast upon human Nature, and of all the Satyrs on Mankind, and especially on , I have ever found or thought that I found Honesty to be the best Policy, and it is as true now as it was 3000 years ago, that the honest Man is seldom forsaken. Your sentiment that we are but half taught in the great national Arts of Government and War, are I fear too just. And I fear that the subject which is at present most essentially connected with our Government and Warfare, I mean Money, is least understood of any. I fear the Regulation of Prices will produce ruin sooner than safety. It will starve the Army and the Country if enforced, or I am ignorant of every Principle of Commerce, Coin and Society. Barter will be the only OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 11 Trade. You are daily looking out for some great mili- tary Character : Have you found none ? Let me in- treat you, my Friend, to look back on the Course of this War, and especially through the last Campaign, and then tell me, whether many Countries of the World have ever furnished more, and greater examples of Fortitude, Valour and Skill, than our little States have produced. We dont attend enough to our Heroes, and are too indulgent to those of opposite Characters. Barten, Meigs, Green, Smith, Willett, Gansevoort, Harkemer, Starke, Arnold, Gates, and many, many others, have exhibited to our view, a series of actions, which all the exertions and skill of our enemies, have never equalled in the present Contest. I dont mean by this to derogate from the main Army or its Com- mander. Brandywine and Germantown can witness both Bravery and Skill, tho unfortunate. The great Fault of our officers is, want of Dilligence and Patience. They dont want Bravery or Knowledge. Let them learn to attend to their Men, to their Cloaths, Diet, Air, Exercise, Medicines, Arms, Accoutrements, &c.,-in short let our officers learn to keep their in Health, and to keep them together at their Duty, not let 2500 Men run away to guard Baggage Waggons through a Country where there could be no enemy, and I would answer for the Bravery of our Armies, for their Dis- cipline and good Dispositions. If one may venture to prophecy I think you will see in another Campaign, still greater exertions of Heroism and Magnanimity. The Idea that any one Man alone can save us is too silly for any Body, but such weak Men as Duche, to harbour for a Moment. I am very glad you have not laid down your Com- 12 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. mission, and I conjure you, by all the Tyes of Friend- ship to your Country, not to do it. Men who are sensible of the evils in the hospital Department are the most likely to point them out to others, and to suggest Remedies. Patience! Patience! Patience. The first, the last and the middle virtue of a Politician. The Lady you mention will not go abroad, a Thou- sand reasons are against it. It would be too much happiness for him, who is your sincere Friend and most humble servt. Dr. Rush. John Adams. P.S.-Mrs. Adams presents her Compliments to Dr. Rush and thanks him for his kind notice of her, and assures him that she shall stand in need of his prescrip- tions of condolance, and should esteem it an honour to have them administered by his Hand, as she is certain from his skill and judgment in humane nature they would serve as restoratives to the pained Heart, and anxious mind of his humble servant Abigail Adams. Be so good sir as to present my regards to your Lady. Passy. Deer. 6. 1778. Dr. Sir,-I had the Pleasure of a Letter from you, a few days before I sailed from Boston, which I have never been able to answer. I think I find more to do here ; more Difficulty to do OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 13 right and at the same Time give satisfaction, than I did, you know where. We suffer here extremely for want of Intelligence from America, as we did there, and as I fear you do still for want of it from Europe. We have very im- perfect Information concerning the state of the Army especially its Health, which you used to have the good- ness to inform me of sometimes. I hope it is better than it was heretofore. I should be very happy to hear from you as often as you can, and to know the state of the Hospital as well as Army in general, and every Thing that relates to Government or War. There is a periodical Pamphlet in French under the title of the Affairs D'Angleterre & De L'Amerique, in which In- telligence and Letters from America are published, for the Information of the People in Europe. I have a strong curiosity to know the Artifices, and subterfuges, with wh. the Tories still keep alive each others Hopes. When England has not and cannot get an ally, and many Nations are preparing to league them- selves against her ; when her Merchants are breaking, her Manufacturers starving, and they are obliged to take them into public pay, under the name of Militia, to prevent their Picking Pocketts, robbing on the High- ways, and plundering in Companies all before them. I have but one Peace of advice to give. I never had any other. " Be not deceived." Tho B. is in a deplorable situation, the administration will neither acknowledge our Independence nor withdraw their Troops. You must kill, starve or take them all. Your F'nd. & serv't. Dr. Rush. John Adams. 14 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Braintree Septr. io. 1779. My dear Friend,-I am indebted to you for more Letters than I can repay at present, but declaring my- self a Bankrupt, you must accept of a few shillings in the Pound : indeed I suspect the Debt is greater than I know of, having seen in the Courier de L'Europe, part of a letter from you to Dr. Dubourg, which was intercepted, in which you refer him to me for a long Letter upon our military affairs, &c. But this letter, nor any other from you, never reached me in France. I was sensibly afflicted at their Loss, for there are no Letters I prize more than yours, because none to me are more instructive, and in Europe I was terribly tormented for want of information from our Country. How goes on your Government? When I arrived I found the Massachusetts, in sober earnest, endeavour- ing at last to frame a Constitution. The People have done themselves Honour, in choosing a great number of the most respectable Men, into the Convention, and there has been hitherto great Harmony among them. My native Town of Braintree did me the Honour to choose me into this society of Worthies, upon my first arrival, and although I foresee I shall have a laborious Piece of Business of it, yet I am much pleased with the opportunity of having a share in this great Work. It is impossible for us, however, to acquire any Honour as so many fine examples have been so recently set us ; although we shall deserve some degree of Disgrace if we fall much short of them. It will not be easy to please this People ; but I hope we shall succeed : if we do not, I dont know what will be the Consequence. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 15 We must send to Europe or the other States, for what I know, for a set of Legislators. My best Respects to your agreeable Family, and all our Friends in Philadelphia, and believe me to be your Friend and servant Dr. Rush. John Adams. Braintree Septr. 19. 1779. Dear Sir,-I had the Pleasure of yours of August 19, by the last Post, and thank you for your kind Con- gratulations on my Return. You Judge right when you suppose that I cannot be idle, but my Industry will probably be directed in a different manner in future. My Principles are not in Fashion. I may be more use- full here, as you observe, than in the Cabinet of Louis the 16. But let me tell you that that Cabinet is of great Importance, and that there ought to be some body there, who knows somewhat of the affairs of America, as well as Europe, and who will take the Pains to think, and to advise that Cabinet, with all proper Delicacy, in certain Circumstances. I have little to say about the Time and manner of my being super- ceded. Let those reflect upon themselves who are disgraced by it, not I. Those who did it are alone dis- graced by it. The Man who can Show a long series of disinterested services to his Country, cannot be dis- graced even by his Country. If she attempts it she only brings a stain upon her own character and makes his glory the more illustrious. We have cause to congratulate ourselves upon the 16 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. favourable appearance of affairs in Europe and America. There is not one symptom in Europe against us. Yet I must own to you, that I think France and Spain are yet to be convinced of the true Method of conducting this War. It is not by besieging Gibraltar, nor in- vading Ireland, in my humble opinion, but by sending a clear superiority of Naval Power into the American seas, by destroying or captivating the British Forces here, by sea and Land, by taking the West India Islands and destroying the British Trade, and by affording Con- voys to Commerce between Europe and America, and between America and the French and Spanish Islands, that this War is to be brought to a speedy Conclusion, happy for us, and glorious as well as advantageous to our allies. These were the objects of all my negotiations, and I dare hazard all upon the good Policy of them. I fear that these Ideas will now be forgotten: I cannot but wish that Congress would give positive Instructions to their Minister, nay that they would make a direct appli- cation themselves to their ally, to this Purpose. Mr. Gerry can shew you, in Confidence, some Papers upon the subject. I have a great Curiosity to know the History of the Political Proceedings, within and out of Doors, last Winter. I confess myself unable to comprehend it. I am more puzzled at the Conduct of those who ought to have been my Friends than at any Thing else. How- ever I have not Light enough to form a Judgment. You speak French so perfectly, and love good Men so much, that I wish you to be acquainted with the Chevalier De la Luzerne, and Mr. Marbois. Those Gentlemen were making enquiry after a certain Letter, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 17 that you was very partial to. I enclose it to you and request you to give it them from me with my most affectionate and respectfull Compliments. I am with much affection, your Friend & servt. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Braintree Novr. 4. 1779. My dear Sir,-Your favours of Octr. 12 and 19 are before me. I should not have left the first seven days unanswered, if it had not been for my new Trade of a Constitution monger. I inclose a Pamphlet as my apology. It is only a Report of a Committee, and will be greatly altered no doubt. If the Com'tee. had boldly made the Legislature consist of three Branches, I should have been better pleased. But I cannot en- large upon this subject. I am pained in my inmost soul, at the unhappy affair at Coll Wilsens. I think there ought to be an article in the Declaration of Rights of every State, securing Freedom of Speech, Impartiality, and Independence at the Bar. There is nothing on which the Rights of every Member of Society more depend. There is no Man so bad, but he ought to have a fair Tryal, and an equal Chance to obtain the ablest Council, or the Advo- cate of his Choice, to see that he has fair Play, and the Benefit of Truth and Law. Dont be dismayed, you will yet find Liberty a charm- ing substance. I wish I had Leonidas, cant you send it after me ? Thank you for your Congratulations on my new and 18 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. most honourable appointment. If it is possible for Mortals to honour Mortals, I am honoured,-with an Honour, however, that makes me tremble. Pray help me, by corresponding constantly with me, and sending me all the Pamphlets, Journals, News, &c., to a little success, as well as honour. Your Congratulations on the Count D'Estaings oper- ations, are conceived in Terms flattering enough. I will please myself, with the Thought, untill the contrary appears that I had some share in bringing him here. If he only liberates Georgia and Rhode Island, which seems to be already done, it is a great success. Altho I go to make Peace, yet if the old Lady, Bri- tania will not suffer me to do that, I will do all I can in Character, to sustain the War, and direct it in a sure Course. I must be prudent in this however, which I fear is not enough my Characteristick, but I flatter my- self, I am rather growing in this Grace; in this spirit I think, that altho we have had Provocations enough to excite the warmest Passions against Great Britain, yet it is our duty to silence all resentment in our delibera- tions about Peace, and attend only to our Interests, and our engagements with our allies. Nothing ever gives me so much Pleasure, as to hear of Harmony in Congress. Upon this depends our Union, Strength, Prosperity and Glory. If the late appointments give satisfaction I am happy, and if the Liberties and Independence of our Country are not safe in my Hands, you may swear it is for want of Brains, not of Heart. The appointment of Mr. Dana could not be mended. He will go, and I shall be happy. You have given me Pain by your account of the Com- plaints against the Director. I am sorry, very sorry ! OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 19 What will you say, if I should turn your Thoughts from Politicks to Philosophy. What do you think of Dr. Franklins Theory of Colds ? He is fixed in the opinion that we never take Cold from the cold air, and wants the experiments of sanitarians tried over again. Suppose you should make a Statical Chair, and try, whether Perspiration is most copious in a warm bed, or stark naked in the open air. I assure you, these Branches of Physicks, come within the Circle of the Sciences of the Statesman, for an unlucky Cold [which I have been much subject to all my days] may stop him in his Career, and dash all his schemes; and it is a poor excuse to say, he foresaw and provided against every event, but his own sickness. My Partner, whose tender Health and numerous Family, will not permit her to make me as happy as Mr. Jay, joins with me in the kindest Compliments to you and Mrs. Rush. Adieu. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Amsterdam Septr. 20. 1780. Dear Sir,-Yours of 13 July is recd. Your account of the Resurrection of the Spirit of 1775 & 1776 is refreshing. The Ladies having undertaken to support American Independence, settles the Point. Surely no Gentleman will ever dispute it, against so many of the fair. The ill bred Fellows of St. James's will continue to quarrell about it, but we knew long ago that they have no manners. If Mrs. Rush reproaches you with Lukewarmness, sure I am, there must be zeal enough, 20 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. for it is impossible that you should be wanting in the necessary Proportion of that quality. Mr. Searle is intitled to every good office in my Power, from many considerations. Lloyds will afford but a sorry subscrip- tion this year to Lord Norths Loan for 1781. They are deeply taken in. May they soon hear of more respectable additions to the List of their Losses. My best Compliments to Mrs. Rush and desire her to move in the assemblies of the Ladies, that their Influence may be exerted to promote Privateering. This and Trade is the only way to lay the Foundation of a Navy, which alone can afford a solid Protection to every Part of their Country. If I could have my Will, there should not be the least obstruction to Navigation, Commerce or Privateering. Because I firmly believe that one sailer will do us more good than two soldiers. Keppell is thrown out at Windsor, Burke and Cruger at Bristol, and your Friend Lawbridge in the City: it is necessary in England for a Man to be an enemy to his Country in order to be popular. When this is the Case all is lost. I am my dear sir, your affectionate Friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. Amsterdam June 16. 1781. Dear Sir,-I take the Liberty to recommend the Bearer, Mr. Le Roy, to your Civilities. He is a Native of New York but educated here where he has good Connections and a good Character. He wants Connections in Trade which he has well .OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 21 deserved from Americans by his friendly attention to them at all times. He will not give you a great Idea of the warlike Preparations here. There is a Stagnation of Trade, War, Policy and for what I know of the Pulse for there are no symptoms of Life as yet. With great esteem, I am, sir, your fr'nd. & serv't. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. The Hague. April 22. 1782. My dear Sir,-Mr. Peter Paulus, is seized with an enthusiasm to go to Philadelphia, with his Journeymen. I should be much obliged to you, for any advice or Civility you may shew him. The Batavian Spirit is at last arroused, and has uttered its voice, with Majesty, for the souvereignty of the United States of America. The 19 of April, was the memorable day, when their High Mightinesses took the Resolution. You will see in the Gazettes, the Peti- tions and Maneuvres which ushered in this event with such solemnity, as to make it the most signal epocha in the History of a Century. We shall have in this Nation, if I am not infinitely mistaken, a faithfull, an affectionate and most usefull ally. In order to be steady and persevering in my known Character for Vanity, which honour I have acquired since I came to Europe by the help of friends, I must tell you that Don Liano, the Spanish Minister has this 3 22 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Moment gone out of my appartment, after having said to me, "You have made sir, the grandest step that has ever yet been taken. It is you, who have filled this Nation with enthusiasm for your Cause and turned their Heads. It is a most important and a most de- cisive Measure, and it is due to you." Voila! a flow of diplomatick Rhetorick, enough to turn my Head, whether I have turned those of the Dutchmen or not. Yours affectionately J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Paris, November 7. 1782. Dear Sir,-Accept of my Thanks for your Favour of 28 Septr. The Analogy of Religion and of manners, are undoubtedly not less advantages in the Connection with Holland, than those of Commerce and Republi- canism. The Influence of the Stadtholder and his Court, the Intrigues of the English, the weight of a numerous, wealthy and powerfull English Party, the secret and open Negotiations of Neutral Powers were not the only obstacles I had to encounter. Secret dark Insinu- ations against my Personal Character from a Quarter from whence they ought not to have come, embarrassed me more than all the rest. Patience and Perseverance, however, at last overcame them all. My first object was to hear the public voice and to discover the national sense. I had soon Information from a variety of sources, which satisfied me beyond a OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 23 Doubt. I ventured to presume upon it, knowing a little of the Constitution of the Country. It is perhaps the only Country of much Consequence in Europe where I should have hazarded so much. The Course I took would by no means succeed any where else. The Advantages arising from it are i. A little money for our able Financier. 2. The Prevention of a sepa- rate Peace. 3. Occupation for a considerable Squad- ron of the British Navy for a considerable Part of the Campaign. 4. A little less Dependence upon France. 5. More zeal and Necessity in England for Peace. 6. A little more inclination in Spain to strike with us. 7. More Disposition in the Neutral Powers to a share in our Commerce and Confidence, and to admit us into the Neutral Confederation. 8. More Consideration to our Ministers in every Court. 9. More Dignity to our Cause in the Eyes of all Nations. You have been a little too busy in your profession of late and are getting Money too fast for my Comfort. I have read the Speculations on a Navy with vast Pleasure. The Subject and the Author were enough to interest me if the execution had been less able. I am dear sir, yours Dr. Benjamin Rush. J. Adams. Paris April 8. 1783. My dear Sir,-Mr. Archibald Redford, the Bearer of this Letter has been introduced to me by Gentlemen who have been usefull to us in the Negotiation for 24 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Peace, so that I venture to give him this introduction to you. We have such a dead Calm in Europe as I never knew before.-All is stagnated. No Government in England and no News from America. I hope to have the Pleasure of seeing you once more, at Philadelphia, within the year. But if the acceptance of my resignation arrives as I expect in the first ships, I shall go to Boston first and take a Dose of Repose, being very weary. With much esteem sir, your most obedient servant Dr. Rush. John Adams. Paris Septr. 14. 1783. My dear Friend,-Give me leave to introduce to your acquaintance and Friendship Mr. Thaxter, who goes home with the definitive Treaty. This Treaty which is but a Repetition of the Provis- ional Articles was all we could obtain, a poor Compen- sation for nine Months Negotiation ; but I assure you we were very glad to get the Hand put to this. I was in hopes to have soon seen you in Philadelphia, but Congress have had the Goodness to resolve upon a Commission, very honourable to me, which will detain me, I know not how long. I hope the States are settling fast into order, and that all will go well. There will be disputes for some time about the Refugees but I hope they will have no serious ill effect. It would have been better for them to have OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 25 had no article, but the Reputation of national Faith and Royal honour, inclined the English to insist even on this. We could obtain no Peace without it, and there- fore we could not hesitate. The Interest upon Debts I hope will be made easy, but we could obtain no stipulation for it. With great and sincere esteem your Friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. Bath Hotel WestxMinster June 10th. 1785. Sir,-Yesterday the 9th. of the month, I was pre- sented to the Queen by my Lord Aylesbury, Her Lord Chamberlain, having been attended to His Lordship and introduced to Him by the Master of the Ceremo- nies, the Queen was attended by Her Ladies, and I made my Compliments to Her Majesty in the follow- ing words: Madam,-Among the many circumstances which have rendered my mission to His Majesty desirable to me, I have ever considered it a principal one that I would have an opportunity of my making my court to a great Queen, whose royal virtues and talents have ever been acknowledged and admired in America, as well as in all the Nations of Europe, as an example to Princesses and the glory of Her sex. Permit me Madam to recommend to your Majesty's royal goodness a rising Empire, and an infant, virgin world-Another Europe, Madam, is rising in America, do a philosophical mind like Your Majesty's, there can not be a more pleasing contemplation than this pros- 26 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. pect of doubling the human species, and augmenting at the same time their prosperity and Happiness. It will in future ages be the glory of these kingdoms to have peopled that country, and to have sown there those seeds, of science, of liberty, of virtue, and permit me, Madam, to add of piety, which alone constitute the prosperity of nations and the happiness of the human race. After venturing upon such high insinuations to Your Majesty, it seems to be descending too far, to ask as I do Your Majesty's royal indulgence to a person, who is indeed unqualified for Courts, and who owes his eleva- tion to this distinguished honor, of standing before Your Majesty, not to any circumstances of illustrious birth, fortune or abilities, but merely to an ardent devotion to his native Country and some little industry and perse- verance in her service. The Queen answered me in these words. " I thank you Sir, for your civilities to me and my family ; and am glad to see you in this Country." The Queen then asked me if I had provided myself with a house. I answered I have agreed for one Madam this morning. She then made her courtesy, and I made my reverence, and retired into the drawing-room, where the King, Queen, Princess royal and younger Princess, Her sister all spoke to me very obligingly. I attended until the drawing-room was over, and then returned home. It has been necessary, in order to guard against false reports and malicious fictions, to reduce to writing what was said in my audiences of the King and Queen, and it is the custom of all Ministers to transmit these com- pliments to their Courts. I transmit them to you in OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 27 cypher, that they may be as little exposed to criticism as possible. As the Court knew very well that the eyes of all Europe were fixed upon these audiences, it may be fairly concluded from them, that it is the intention of the royal family and the ministry to treat America, that is the United States and their Ministers upon the foot- ing of other foreign powers. But our inferences can go no farther. We can not infer from this that they will relax their navigation act for us any more than for France. We are sure of one thing; that a navigation act is in our power as well as in theirs, and that ours would be more hurtful to them than theirs to us. In short it is scarcely possible to calculate to what an height of naval power a navigation act would raise the United States in a very few years. With great regard and esteem, I have the honor to be Dear Sir, Yr. Most Obed't. & Humble Serv't John Adams. Mr. Secretary Jay. E. B. S. London Feb. 28. 1788. My dear Friend,-The Letter that accompanies this, is from a Character so respectable, that I beg leave to recommend it to your particular attention. The Correspondent will be found worthy of you. I have taken Leave, and shall embark, as soon as the Equinoxial and its roughest Blusters are past. 28 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. The Emperors Declaration of War announces louder storms in Europe: but I hope to escape them all in a peaceful Harbour at Braintree. Yours affectionately John Adams. Dr. Rush. [The above enclosed a letter from Revd. Mr. Mil- hoff, German Chaplain to George the Third, on the subject of a family that had migrated from Germany to America.] Dear Sir,-A multiplicity of avocations have pre- vented me from answering your friendly Letter of the 2d. of July, till I am almost ashamed to answer it at all. Your Congratulations on my Arrival and kind Recep- tion are very agreeable because I know them to be sin- cere. Your Compliments upon my poor volumes are consolatory, because they give me grounds to hope that they may have done some good. It is an opinion here that they contributed somewhat to restore a permanent Tranquility to this Commonwealth, as well as to sup- press the pestilent County Conventions, Insurrections and Rebellion, and if I could be flattered into the be- lief that they contributed to the formation or Ratifica- tion of a ballanced national Government for the United States I should sing my Nunc Dimittis with much Pleas- ure. If any one will shew me a single example, where the Laws were respected and Liberty, Property, Life Braintree Deer. 2. 1788. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 29 or Character Secure, without a Ballance in the Consti- tution, I might venture to give up the Controversy. And if any one will shew that there ever was a Bal- lance, or ever can be a ballance for three days together without three Branches and no more, I might also give up the Point. I have heard nothing of the second and third vol- umes in the Southern or Middle States and know not whether they have been read or how received. For the third volume I was most anxious as it was the boldest and freest and most likely to be unpopular. Whether your expectation that I shall be in the new Government, proceeds from your partiality to your old Friend, or from your knowledge of the sentiments of the Nation, I know not. The Choice will be in the breasts of Freemen, and if it falls upon me it will most certainly be a free election. You tell me my Labours are only beginning. Seven and twenty years have I laboured in this rugged Vine- yard, and am now arrived at an age when Man sighs for Repose. My dear Mrs. Adams is with her only Daughter at Long Island. We have three sons, two at Colledge and one with an eminent Lawyer. They are regular in their manners and studies and give me so much satisfaction as to increase the Regret I feel at the Remembrance of how much of their Interests I have been obliged to sacrifice to the publick service. With much esteem and affection I am Dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant Dr. Rush. John Adams. 30 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Braintree, Feb. 8, 1789. My dear Friend,-Your obliging favour of the 22. ult. I recd. last night. I remember so much of the Transactions, at the formation of the Pensilvania Con- stitution, that I wish you could save Time enough from almost any other Pursuit, to arrange your materials for an History of the Revolution in Pensilvania, to be pub- lished hereafter: at present perhaps it might not be prudent. The four respectable Characters, who had much Influence in the fabrication of your Constitution, Mr. Matlack, Mr. Cannon, Mr. Paine, and Dr. Young, should be analized and developed in a manner that would give offence. Let me give you the Character of one of them [Young] in a Conversation which really passed in 1772 between Timothy Ruggles and Royal Tyler. Ruggles. That Tom Young is a Firebrand, an Incen- diary, an eternal Fisher in Troubled Waters. Boston will never be in Peace, while that Fellow lives in it. He is a Scourge, a Pestilence, a Judgment. Tyler. Come! Come! Don't abuse Dr. Young. He is a necessary Man in the Town of Boston. He is in the City, what you are in the House of Reps., a use- ful Man. Ruggles. Useful! for what? Tyler. I was yesterday in a watchmakers shop, and looked over his shoulder, while he put a Watch together. The Springs and Wheels were all clean and in good or- der, every one in its Place as far as I could see, but the Watch would not go. The Artist at length with his Thumb and forefinger groping in the Dust upon his OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 31 shopboard, took up a little dirty Pin, scarcely visible to my naked sight, blew off the Dust and screwed it into a particular Part of the Wheelwork. The watch then clicked in an instant, and went very well. This little dirty Screw, are you in the Legislature and Dr. Young in the Town of Boston. Here was a loud roar of Laughter in the whole Company at Ruggles's expense: but his Wit as seldom failed him as his power of Face. With all the Gravity of a Judge he replied. Ruggles. Since you are upon Clock work I'll tell you what you Resemble: the Pendulum-eternally vibrating from one side to the other: but I will do you the Justice to say, I never knew one swing so clear! The answer hit the Character so exactly, that the Tide of Laughter was now turned the contrary way. We have had, my dear Sir, in all the States, in the Course of the late Revolution too many of these little Pins, who have acquired the Reputation of Great Wheels and main Springs. Legislation requires universal knowledge and great experience. How few in any age or Country, have been equal to it. In America we should have been very excusable, if we had found none. Neither our Education, our Prospects or Expectations led us to this Frame of Thinking. Ages of anarchy and Distraction preceded the forma- tion of such Characters as those of Lycurgus and Solon; and long study and laborious Travel, with a single view to discover the best forms of Government, were scarcely sufficient for their purpose. An anxiety for the Consequences of the form of Government which I found planning for Pensilvania, 32 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. induced me to throw out those Thoughts on Govern- ment which were printed, I believe by Dunlap in 1776. If you can find one of them you will oblige me by send- ing it. I have not seen it these Ten years and have not been able to find one here, since my return. I remem- ber that you wrote a series of Speculations in the News- papers about the same time upon the same subject. As I thought them at the Time both spirited and ingenious I wish to see them again. With the Character of Mr. Tench Coxe, I have had for sometime an agreeable acquaintance, but knew not that he had employed many of his Thoughts about me till I received your Letter. I have not seen a Pensilvania Paper, since my return, nor did I know but from a Paragraph or two extracted into the Boston Papers, that any Thing had been written concerning me. The Character you give me of Mr. McClay is very agreeable, and the more so, as he is your Friend. His real Character was little known here. If it should be my destiny to have any share in the new Government, you will be very sensible of the Delicacy of my situation, and of the Necessity of a more accurate Discretion than nature perhaps has afforded me. I shall be very happy in your Correspond- ence, but you will readily agree that it must be very confidential. If my sensibility, by long and severe exercise had not been almost exhausted, it would have been deeply affected, at the late Decision in this State. After all the Manoeuvres and Intrigues of a certain popular first Magistrate and his faithful emissaries, there was not one Man returned by the People from all the Districts of the Commonwealth, as an Elector, whose sentiments were even equivocal, unless it were OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 33 one, in a remote Part, whose name I never heard before -and his opinion was only dubious. I am my dear sir, your affectionate Friend, Dr. Rush. John Adams. New York May 3. 1789. Dear Sir,-I have recd. with great Pleasure your Letters of 22d. April and 19. March. These important Letters I have not yet had time to answer, but the sub- jects of them shall be well weighed. I write this to introduce a Neighbour of mine, in Braintree, Captn. Benjamin Beal who is desirous of seeing Philadelphia for the first time. He was born and bred my Neighbour, has followed the sea many years and married an amiable Lady in England, whom he has brought with a numerous Family to America. I am, Dr. Sir, with great regard yours John Adams. Dr. Rush. New York May 17. 1789. Dear Sir,-Your favour ofahe 19 of March deserves a particular consideration and answer, which I have not till now been able, from a multitude of avocations some frivolous yet indispensable others of more consequence, to give it. The Influence which you suppose I may have as President of the Senate, will be found to be very little, 34 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. if any at all. You say the Eastern States must not be suspected: but you know as well as I, that they have been suspected these fifteen years and in order to be not suspected, or at least not pretended to be suspected, either they or some other states must not exist, unless those other States send different Members to Congress from some that they have already sent. The Place will make little odds-in Georgia, in Maryland, in Pensil- vania and in New York, suspicion real or feigned would be the same. 2. I cannot see that a union of Virginia, Pensilvania and Massachusetts, in fixing the seat of Government, at one place more than another, would increase or diminish their Influence in any future dis- tribution of the great offices of state, nor do I think that this Circumstance ought to have any Weight in Elections or appointments. 3. I see no symptoms of a corrupt Influence here, more than I always saw at Philadelphia, and the Inhabitants of this City appear as decidedly federal as those of any other Place. 4. The foreign Ministers will have very little Influence in de- termining the Place, in all other respects their Influence will be the same in Philadelphia as in New York. 5. I own however that I love Philadelphia quite as well as New York, and the noble Libraries there would be a strong temptation to me. 6. I think the danger in this article is very probable, and a federal Town, to the southward of Chesapeake Bay, would be terrible to the health of many Gent'n. But what think you of the federal Town at Trenton? 7. I doubt whether con- ducting Members of Congress to inspect the Treasury Books is dishonourable. I rather think it laudable.- but I cant see however that the Treasury Books should determine where Congress is to sit. 8. I wish I knew OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 35 the names of the Gentlemen, the leading Characters who were unfriendly to my election, not to make me unfriendly to them but the contrary, as far as their views are for the public good;-as far as they are contrary to that good I should oppose them friends or ennemies. I know very well I have many Friends in Philadelphia, many more and more sincere than in New York: but all this ought not to influence me in giving votes for public Measures. But to come to the Point I am situated in the Consti- tution, in a manner, that will render it proper for me to be neutral in such a Contest. I shall never be a zealous advocate for sitting in New York, because I am not convinced that it is more for the public advantage, than to sit elsewhere. Let me now if you please remember your Letter of 22d. of April. My situation at the head of the Senate, where I was placed by the People at large, not as the Members were by their Legislatures, instead of giving me an influence as you suppose, will prevent me from having any. Mr. Wilson I have long known, esteemed and respected : but, if I had a Vote, I could not promise to give it for him to be Chief Justice. All Things considered, that have ever come to my knowledge I feel myself inclined to wish, because I am fully\convinced that services, Hazards, Abilities and Popularity all properly weighed, the Ballance is in favour of Mr. Jay. One of the Judges I wish Mr. Wilson to be: and the difference is not great between the first and the other Judges. You say I had not a firmer Friend in the late election. I must protest against this mode of reasoning. I am 36 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. not obliged to vote for a Man because he voted for me, had my office been ever so lucrative or ever so impor- tant. But ask your own heart. Is not my election to this office, in the scurvy manner in which it was done, a curse rather than a Blessing? Is there Gratitude? is there Justice? is there common sense or decency in this Business ? Is it not an indelible stain on our Country, Countrymen and Constitution ? I assure you I think it so, and nothing but an apprehension of great Mischief, and the final failure of the Government from my Refusal and assigning my reasons for it, prevented me from Spurning it. Now my Friend we start fair. Never must I again hear a selfish Motive urged to me, to induce my vote or Influence in publick affairs. I never served the Public one moment in my Life, but to the loss and injury of myself and my Children, and I suffer as much by it at this moment as ever. I am with great esteem dear sir, your Friend and serv't. John Adams. Dr. Rush. New York June 9. 1789. Dear Sir,-No ! You and I will not cease to discuss political questions : but we will agree to disagree when- ever we please, or rather whenever either of us thinks he has reason for it. I really know not what you mean by apeing the Corruptions of the British Court. I wish Congress had been called to meet at Philadel- phia : but as it is now here, I can conceive of no way to get it transported thither, without tearing and rend- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 37 ing. I own to you, that I shall wish to remain here rather than go to any other place than Philadelphia. Congress can not be accomodated in any other than a great City. There was a dark and dirty Intrigue, which propa- gated in the Southern States that New England would not vote for G. Washington, and in the Northern States that New York, Virginia and South Carolina would not vote for him but that all would vote for me, in order to spread a panick lest I should be President, and G. W. Vice President: and this manoeuvre made dupes even of two Connecticut electors. I am well aware that this plott originated in N. York and am not at a Loss to guess the Men or their Motives. I know very well how to make these Men repentof their Rashness. It would be easy to sett on foot an Inquiry: but it is not worth while. That every Part of the Conduct and feelings of the Americans tends to that species of Republick called a limited Monarchy I agree. They were born and brought up in it. Their Habits are fixed in it: but their Heads are most miserably bewildered about it. There is not a more ridiculous Spectacle in the Universe than the Politicks of our Country exhibits : bawling about Re- publicanism which they understand not; and acting a Farce of Monarchy. We will have as you say "but one great Man" yet even he shall not be a great Man. I also, am as much a Republican as I was in 1775. I do not " consider hereditary Monarchy or Aristocracy as Rebellion against Nature." On the contrary I esteem them both Institutions of admirable wisdom and exem- plary Virtue in a certain stage of Society in a great Nation. The only Institutions that can possibly pre- serve the Laws and Liberties of the People, and I am 4 38 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. clear that America must resort to them as an Asylum against Discord, Seditions and Civil War, and that at no very distant Period of time. I shall not live to see it-but you may. I think it therefore impolitick to cherish prejudices against Institutions which must be kept in view as the hope of our Posterity. I am by no means for attempting any such thing at present. Our Country is not ripe for it in many respects, and it is not yet necessary, but our ship must ultimately land on that shore or be cast away. I do not " abhor Titles, nor the Pageantry of Gov- ernment." If I did I should abhor Government itself: for there never was, and never will be, because there never can be, any Government without Titles and Pageantry. There is not a Quaker Family in Pensil- vania, governed without Titles and Pageantry: not a school, not a colledge, not a clubb can be governed without them. " I love the People," with you-too well to cheat them, lie to them or deceive them. I wish those who have flattered them so much had loved them half as well. If I had not loved them I never would have served them-if I did not love them now, I would not serve them another hour-for I very well know that vexation and Chagrine, must be my Portion, every moment I shall continue in public Life. My Country appears to me I assure you in great danger of fatal Divisions, and especially because I scarcely know of two Persons, who think, speak and act alike, in matters of Government. I am with real Friendship yours John Adams. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 39 New York June 19. 1789. Dear Sir,-Your single Principle in your Letter of the 15th must fail you. You say "that Republican Systems have never had a fair Tryal." What do you mean by a " fair Tryal" ? and what by Republican sys- tems? Every Government that has more than one Man in its sovereignty is a republican system. Tryals innumerable have been made-as many as there have existed Nations. There is not and never was, I believe, on earth, a Nation, which has not been, at some Period of its duration, under a Republican Government: i.e. under a Government of more than one. All the various combinations and modifications which the subtle Brains of Men could invent have been attempted, to no other purpose but to shew that Discord, Anarchy and Uncer- tainty of Life, Liberty and Property, can be avoided only by a perfect equilibrium in the Constitution. You seem determined not to allow a limited monarchy to be a republican system, which it certainly is, and the best that has ever been tryed. There is no Proposition, of the Truth of which I am more clearly convinced than this, that the " Influence of general Science," instead of curing any defects in an unbalanced Republick, would only increase and inflame them and make them more intollerable: for this obvious and unanswerable Reason, that Parties would have in them, a greater number of able and ambitious Men, who would only understand the better, how to worry one another with greater Art and dexterity. Religion itself by no means cures this inveterate evil, for parties are always founded on some Principle, and the more 40 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. conscientious Men are, the more determined they will be in pursuit of their Principle, System and Party. I should as soon think of closing all my window shutters, to enable me to see, as of banishing the Classicks, to improve Republican Ideas. How can you say that Factions have been few in America ? Have they not rendered Property insecure ? have they not trampled Justice under foot? have not Majorities voted property out of the pocketts of others into their own, with the most decided Tyranny ? Have not our Parties behaved like all Republican Parties ? is not the History of Hancock and Bowdoin, the History of the Medici and Albizi-that of Clinton and Yates, the same with that of the Cancellieri and the Panchiatichi ? and so on through the Continent. And we shall find that without a Ballance the Progress will soon be, from Libels to Riots, from Riots to Seditions and from Seditions to Civil Wars. Every Project to enlighten our Fellow Citizens has my most hearty good wishes: because it tends to bring them into a right way of thinking respecting the means of their Happiness, civil, political, social and religious. I wish with all my heart, that the Constitution had expressed as much Homage to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe as the President has done in his first speech. The Petit Maitres who call themselves Legis- lators and attempt to found a Government on any other than an eternal Basis of Morals and Religion, have as much of my Pitty as can consist with Contempt. I am my dear sir yours John Adams. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 41 Richmond Hill, July 5. 1789. Dear Sir,-Without waiting for an answer to my last, I will take a little more notice of a sentiment in one of your Letters. You say you "abhor all Titles." I will take the familiar freedom of Friendship to say I dont believe you. Let me explain myself. I doubt not your veracity, but I believe you deceive yourself and have not yet examined your own heart, and recol- lected the feelings of every day and hour. What would you say or think or feel, if your own Chil- dren, instead of calling you Sir, or Father or Papa, should accost you with the Title of " Ben" ? Your ser- vant comes in, and instead of saying, " Master, my hat is much worn, will you please to give me a new one," crys " Ben! my old hat is all in rags, and makes you the laughing stock of the Town. Give me a new one." What think you of this simple, manly republican style ? Had I leisure to write Plays like Gen. Burgoine, I would undertake a Comedy, under the Title of " Gov- ernment without Title." The Dramatis Persona should be a Quaker and his wife, ten Children and four ser- vants. They should all live in the same room, dine, breakfast and sup at the same Table. They should promiscuously call each other by their Names, without Titles and live without forrq. We should see what order, Virtue and Economy would ensue. The sons would soon be married to the female servants and the Daughters to the Male. Both Children and servants would soon kick and cuff the old Man and Woman. Poh, Poh, Poh! Say you all this is vulgar and beneath the Dignity of a Legislator. Give me leave to 42 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. say nothing in human Life is beneath the Dignity of a Magistrate to consider. The Principles of Government are to be seen in every scene of human Life. There is no person and no Society, to whom Forms and Titles are indifferent. Look through the Deeds of Men, and then say whether Shenestone is not in the right, when he says in a whimsical Production called the " School- Mistress" which he wrote in imitation of Spencer : " Albeit ne flatt'ry did corrupt her Truth, " Ne pompous Title did debauch her ear, "Goody, good-woman, Gossip, n'aunt, forsooth " Or Dame, the sole additions she did hear : "Yet these she challeng'd; these she held right dear " Ne would esteem him act as mought behove "Who should not honour'd eld with these revere : "For never title yet so mean could prove, "But there was eke a mind, which did that title love.' The two last Lines contain a truth so exact, so univer- sal, and so litteral, that I declare to you, in the Course of fifty years experience, in various stages of Life among all Classes of People and in several different nations I have never yet met with one Man, Woman or Child, who was destitute of a Passion for a Title. Let us consider, my Friend more reverently and therefore more truly the Constitution of human nature, and the invariable Progress of human Life and man- ners. Family Titles are necessary to Family Govern- ment ; Colonial Titles we know were indispensible in Colonial Government, and we shall find national Titles essential to national Government. As long as Titles are respected by others, they will be esteemed by every Man. But it is not to gratify individuals that public Titles are annexed to offices. It is to make offices and OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 43 laws respected: and not so much by the virtuous Part of the Community, as by the Profligate, the criminal and abandoned, who have little reverence for Reason, Right or Law divine or human. These are overawed by Titles frequently, when Laws and Punishments can- not restrain them. Think of these Things, and perhaps I may hint to you some others hereafter. Yours with sincere esteem John Adams. The Honourable Benjamin Rush, Esq'r. New York July 15. 1789. Dear Sir,-I have read Dr. Rush De Moribus Ger- manorurn with Pleasure. As I am a great lover of Paradoxes, when defended with Ingenuity, I have read also the Phillippic against Latin and Greek, with some amusement: but my Reverence for those Languages and the inestimable Treasures hoarded up in them is not abated. J. J. Rousseau's Phillippic against Arts and Sciences amused, informed, and charmed me- but I have loved and admired Arts and Sciences the better from that time to this. What an Ingrate was he to employ Art and Science to abuse them! and are you much better, to use the knowledge and skill you derived from Latin and Greek, to slander those divine Languages ? Yours ut supra Dr. Rush. I. A. 44 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. My dear Friend,-I have persecuted you too much with my Letters. I beg you would give yourself no trouble to answer them, but when you are quite at Leisure, from more important Business or more agre- able amusement. I deny, that there is or ever was in Europe a more free Republic than England, or that any Liberty on Earth ever equalled English Liberty, notwithstanding the defects in their Constitution. The Idea of admitting absolute Monarchy into this Country, either in this or the next Century strikes me with horror. A little wisdom at present, may preserve a free Government in America, I hope for ever-cer- tainly for many Centuries. I agree with you, that hereditary Monarchy and hereditary Aristocracy, ought not yet to be attempted in America-and that three ballanced Branches, ought to be at stated Periods elected by the People. This must and will and ought to continue, till Intrigue and Corruption, Faction and Sedition shall appear in those elections to such a degree as to render hereditary Institutions a Remedy against a greater evil. I learned in my youth from one of my Preceptors, Vattell. B. 2. c. 3 ss. 41. that "a Nation may grant to its Conductor, what degree of Authority and what rights it thinks proper: it is equally free, in regard to the Name, the Titles, and honours, with which it would decorate him. But it is agreable to its Wisdom, and of Importance to its Reputation, not to deviate in this respect, too much from the Customs commonly received New York July 24. 1789. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 45 among civilized Nations. Let us still observe that it ought to be directed there by Prudence, to proportion titles and honours, to the Power of its Superiour and to the Authority with which it would invest him. Titles and Honours it is true determine nothing: they are vain names and vain Ceremonies when they are ill placed: but who does not know the Influence they have on the Thoughts of Men ? This is then a more serious affair than it appears at the first glance. The Nation ought not to degrade its conductor, by too low a Title. It ought to be still more careful not to swell his heart with a vain name, by unbounded honours ; so as to make him conceive the Thoughts of arrogating to himself a Power answerable to them, or to acquire a proportion- able Power by unjust Conquests. On the other hand, an important Title may engage the Conductor, to sup- port with greater firmness the Dignity of a Nation. Conjectures determine the Prudence which observes in every Thing a just Proportion." All the Reading, Observation and Reflection of thirty or 35 years, have confirmed these Truths in my mind. Among the Romans Scipio was Imperator, and Caesar was Pontifex Maximus. They were Tribunus Sacer, Pater Conscriptus, and Patronus excellentissimus, on all occasions, and the Prolocutor of the Senate was Prince of the Senate. There is not a grosser error in the World, than the common saying that the Romans had no Titles. We come now to your question, which has great weight and solidity. " If we begin with Titles where will they end?" It is true as you say "the States still retain the Power of creating Titles," or at least they may claim it. You ask another very important and 46 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. difficult Question, " By what Rule shall we settle Pre- cedency ?" I will neither undertake to answer, where we shall end, nor to determine the Rule. But this I will venture to say, that we never shall have either Government, or Tranquility or Liberty, until some Rule of Precedency is adopted, and some Titles settled. The question is not whether Titles shall be admitted into our Country. They are already in it, and you will annihilate the Nation before you will eradicate them. The question is whether Provincial Titles or Diplomatic Titles, can preserve or acquire Consideration at home or abroad to a national Government. I totally deny that there is any Thing in Reason or Religion against Titles proportioned to Ranks and Truth, and I affirm that they are indispensably necessary to give Dignity and Energy to Government: and on this ground alone I am an advocate for them. In my private Character, I despise them as much at least as any Quaker, or Philosopher on Earth. You may depend on being the Contempt, the Scorn and the Derision of all Europe, while you call your national Conductor, General or President. You may depend on another Thing. The State Government will ever be uppermost in America in the Minds of our own People, till you give a superiour Title to your first national Magistrate. The most modest Title you can give him, in any reasonable Proportion, to the wealth, Power and Popu- lation of this Country and to the constitutional authority and Dignity of his office is " His Majesty, the Presi- dent." This is my opinion, and I scorn to be hypocrite enough to disguise it. Miracles will not be wrought for us. We dont deserve them. If we will have OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 47 Government, we must use human and natural means. Titles and Ranks are as essential to Government, as Reason and Justice. In short Government is nothing else but Titles, Ceremonies and Ranks. They alone enable Reason to produce Justice. I am with usual esteem and regard dear sir, yours Dr. Rush. John Adams. Richmond Hill July 28. 1789. Dear Sir, - "The Characters, I so much admire among the ancients," were not "formed wholly by Republican forms of Government." I admire Phillip and Alexander, as much as I do Themistocles and Pericles, nay as much as Demosthenes. I admire Pisis- tratus almost as much as Solon ; and think that the Arts, Elegance, Literature and Science of Athens was his work and that of his Sons, more than of any or all the popular Commanders or orators. The two Republicks of Antiquity that I most admire are Sparta and Rome, and these were both monarchical Republicks. Athens indeed was ballanced with great Care and some Art, till Aristides overturned the Con- stitution to make himself popular, and acquire the Title of just. So that I think the Man who voted to ostracize him because he was called just by the Mob, was a Man of sense, spirit and virtue. You doubt whether Titles overawe the profligate. You ask where do I find more profligate manners than among the citizens of London. I am almost disposed 48 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. to answer you by saying, in Boston, in New York, in Philadelphia. I assure you, my friend I wish my dear Countrymen had less Vanity and more Pride. The advantages we have over Europe, are chiefly geograph- ical. I see very little moral or political Preference. As far as I can judge there is as much Vice, Folly, and more Infidelity, Idleness, Luxury and Dissipation, in any of our great Towns in Proportion to Numbers, as in London. But the Question should be what would be the degree of Profligacy in London, if there were no Titles ? and I seriously believe it would be much greater than it is. Nay I dont believe it would be possible to support any Government at all, among such Multitudes without Distinctions of Rank and the Titles that mark them. According to what I have seen in England, as well as France, Holland, Spain and Germany, there is nothing strikes and overawes the most abandoned of the Populace so much as Titles. Whether Titles beget Pride in Rulers or not is not an argument. Would you reject every Thing that be- gets Pride ? If you do you must reject Virtue, which begets the most exquisite, exalted and unconquerable Pride. You must reject Laws, Government, offices of all kind, and even Religion. Spiritual Pride has grown out of Religion. Would you reject Religion? Men who would be made proud by a Title, will be made so by an office without a Title. But why should Titles beget Baseness among the common People ? Respect, Reverence, Submission and Obedience to the Laws and lawful Magistrates you would wish to see both in the virtuous and vicious of the common People. If obedience cannot be obtained from the vicious without begetting Baseness, by which OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 49 I suppose you mean fear, why should you object to that ? But Titles have no tendency to beget Baseness in poor Men who are virtuous, more than offices with- out Titles. But I must insist that Laws are made and Magis- trates appointed on purpose to create Fear and Terror in the Minds of the vicious, and if Titles will save you the expense of Gallows, stocks, whipping posts, or the Pain of employing them, why not use them ? If Titles will do instead of armies and Navies, or any Part of them, why reject them ? Don't the Gallows beget Baseness in the Common People? Would you have no Gallows ? Dont a prison beget Baseness ? Would you have no Prison ? Dont all sorts of Punishments beget Baseness? Would you abolish all Punish- ments ? You say the conquered Provinces first introduced Titles into the Roman Empire. But in this I believe you are mistaken. Had the Kings of Rome, no Titles ? Vir amplissimus, Vir Clarissimus, Vir amplissimus Consul, Vir Summus. These were familiar among them in the simplest times. Historians indeed never use Titles,-but Titles were used in Life, and had their influence. 1. The Romans conferred Titles very early, e.g.y Manlius, Capitolinus, and very late as Scipio Africanus. These Titles were very common and had great Influence, for they carried with them the Ideas of Tryumphs and Glorys beyond any Titles in our Times. 2. They managed their Agnomen, Cognomen and Nomen in a manner, to influence the People, as much as our Titles. Cicero tells us what was their Custom, 50 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. "Nomen cum dicimus, cognomen quoque et Agnomen, intelligatur, oportet." i. The Praenomen was our Christian Name. 2. The Nomen was the Name of a Race, or Gens; as all descended from lulus the son of Eneas the son of Venus, were called lulii, and were accounted divine. 3. The Cognomen distinguished different Families of the same Race ; for Gens signified the whole and Familia a Part. Those of the same Gens were called Gentiles, [whence our word Genteel and Gentleman]. Those of the same Family Agnati. The Agnomen, like Scipio Africanus and Scipio Asiaticus, has been mentioned before. Julius signified the Gens and Caesar the Familia. As these Families and Races happened to be of con- sular, Praetorian, or Tribunitian Dignity, or even only of Patrician Dignity, their names carried more influence than the Titles of Princes, Dukes, Marquises, Earls, Barons do at this day in Europe, for we must always recollect that these Families and offices were all conse- crated, and consequently struck the Roman Mind which was certainly more superstitious, if not more religious than ours, with an holy awe. In order to form some Idea of the religious veneration, approaching to adora- tion, which the Roman Policy inspired into the Minds of their Citizens towards their Magistrates and the Races and Families which exercised them, we must recollect their Leges Sacratae. And what was a Lex Sacrata ? Sacratae leges sunt, [inquit Festus] quibus Sancitum est, qui quid adversus eas fecerit, sacer alieni deorum sit, cum familia, pecun- iaque. There were several of these Sacred Laws, by which all their Magistrates were protected. The OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 51 Lex Sacrata passed upon the holy Mountain, for the Security of the Tribunes, is in Dionysius as follows, " Tribunum nemo in ordinem redigito, neque invitum quidquam facere cogito, nec verberato, nec alium ver- berare jubeto. Si quis contra fecerit, sacer esto, et bona ejus Cereri Sacra sunto: et qui cum Occident, purus a caede esto:-hanc legem omnes juraverunt seque et Posteros in sempiternum observaturos." Only consider the effect of taking an oath by all the People to observe this Law. Now sir, I contend, that as Consuls, Praetors, Trib- unes, etc., were consecrated officers, the Title of Sacro- sanctus belonged to them all, and was little short of that of sacred Majesty. I say farther that Patres Conscripti was an higher Title than my Lords, or most Honour- able, and that the Names of Sacred Gentes, et Familiae had greater influence among the Romans than modern European Titles. Never let me again hear the Romans quoted as neglecting or despising Titles. If I do, I will persecute you with more Latin. Yours affectionately John Adams. Dr. Rush. Richmond Hill Feb. 1790. Dear Sir,-I had heard before I recd. your Letter of the 12th. of your new engagements in the Colledge added to your extensive Practice and other virtuous Pursuits, and therefore was at no loss to account for your long silence. 52 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. I have no pretensions to the Merit of your manly and successful opposition to the Constitution of Pensil- vania; but I am very willing to be responsible for any Consequences of its Rejection. I have never despised public opinion deliberately. If I have ever expressed myself lightly of it, it was in haste and without caution. On the contrary it is always to be respected and treated with decency, even when in error ; but never to be made the Rule of Action against Conscience. It is seldom and only in small matters to be followed implicitly. It is a wave of the sea in a storm in the Gulph Stream, except when it is the result of methodical Councils or secret Influence. It should be guided and aided as well as informed by those who are in Possession of all the secrets of the State. In no nation that ever yet existed, were all the Facts known to the whole Body or even a Majority of the People, which were essential to the formation of a right Judgment of public affairs. The History of this Country for the last thirty years, affords as many proofs of this Truth as that of any other Nation. How many times, both at home and abroad have our affairs been in situations, that none but Mad- men would have thought proper to be published in de- tail to the People. You are not the only one who has seen and felt The Jealousy, Envy and Ingratitude of Friends. " I love my friend as well as you, " But why should he obstruct my view?" contains a Truth which has laid the foundation for every Despotism and every absolute Monarchy on Earth. It is this sentiment which ruins every Democracy and OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 53 every Aristocracy, and every possible Mixture of both, and renders a mediating Power an invincible equilibrium between them indispensible. Never yet was a Band of Heroes or Patriots able to bear the sight of any one of them constantly at their head, if they saw any opening to avoid it. Emulation almost the only Principle of Activity, [except Hunger and Lust] is the Cause of all the Wars, Seditions, and Parties in the World. What is most astonishing is, that we should be so ignorant of it, or inattentive to it, and that we should not see, that an independent Executive Power, able at all times to overrule these Rivalries, is absolutely necessary. The charming Picture you give me of your Domestic Felicity delights my inmost soul: but revives in me a lively regret for the ten years of my Life that I lost;- when I left my Children to grow up without a Father. There are two Parties my friend, who have united in some degree, to obscure the fame of the old Whiggs. The Tories are one, and the Young Fry is the other. By the latter I mean a sett of young Gentlemen who have come out of Colledge since the Revolution, and are Candidates for fame. There is a sett of Men in this Country who have hazarded too much, laboured too much, suffered too much, and succeeded too well ever to be forgiven. Some of these unfortunately are not Men of large views and comprehensive Information, and have adopted destructive systems of Policy. Were it not for this last Consideration, you would hear their Cause pleaded in accents that would make Impressions on every honest human heart. You, my dear sir, enjoy the esteem of the honest and enlightened and are perhaps more usefully and happily employed than others in places of more eclat. There 5 54 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. is no Man however that I should see with more Pleasure in public Life, especially in Congress. With a Knowledge of the modern Languages it is so easy to acquire the ancient, and the ancient are so great a step towards the acquisition of the Modern, that I cannot help putting in a Word more in favour of Greek and Latin. I am, my dear Sir, your Friend John Adams. Dr. Benjamin Rush. I forbid you, on pain of what shall fall thereon, from giving me a Title in your Letters. I scorn, disdain, despise, [take what Word you will] all Titles. New York Feb 2. 1790. Dear Sir,-I cannot give up my dear Latin and Greek although Fortune has never permitted me to enjoy so much of them as I wished. I dont love you the less however for your Indifference or even opposi- tion to them. Pray do you carry your Theory so far as to wish to exclude French, Italian, Spanish, and Tudesque ? I begun to fear that your multiplied phisical and other engagements had made you forget me. But am much obliged to you for introducing Mr. Andrew Brown, to whom I wish success. I congratulate you, on the Prospect of a new Consti- tution for Pensilvania. Poor France I fear will bleed, for too exactly copying your old one. When I see such miserable crudities approved by OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 55 such Men as Rochefaucault and Condorcet I am dis- posed to think very humbly of human understanding. Experience is lost on poor Mankind ! Oh how I pitty them without being able to help them. Write me when you can. Yours &c John Adams. Dr. Rush. New York April 4. 1790. Dear Sir,-The Tories as you observe in your friendly Letter of 24 Feb. are more attached to each other; they are also, we must candidly confess, more of real Politicians. They make to themselves more merit with the People, for the smallest services, than the Whigs are able to do for the greatest. The Arts, the Trumpetts, the Puffs, are their old Instruments and they know how to employ them. The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one end to the other. The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklins electrical Rod, smote the Earth and out sprung General Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his rod-and thence forward these two conducted all the Policy, Negotiations, Legislatures and War. These underscored Lines contain the whole Fable Plot and Catastrophy. If this Letter should be preserved, and read an hundred years hence the Reader will say, "the envy of this J. A. could not bear to think of the Truth! He ventured to scribble to Rush, as envious as himself, Blasphemy that he dared not speak when he lived. But Barkers at the Sun and Moon are always 56 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Silly Curs." But this my Friend, to be serious, is the Fate of all ages and Nations ; and there is no resource in human nature for a Cure. Brederode did more in the Dutch Revolution than William ist. Prince of Orange. Yet Brederode is forgotten and William the Saviour, Deliverer and Founder. Limited Monarchy is founded in Nature. No Nation can adore more than one Man at a time. It is an happy Circumstance that the object of our Devotion is so well deserving of it; that he has virtue so exquisite and wisdom so con- summate. There is no Citizen of America will say, that there is in the World so fit a Man for the head of the Nation. From my soul I think there is not; and the Question should not be who has done or suffered most, or who has been the most essential and Indis- pensable Cause of the Revolution, but who is best qualified to govern us? Nations are not to sacrifice their Future Happiness to Ideas of Historical Justice. They must consult their own Weaknesses, Prejudices, Passions, Senses and Imaginations as well as their Reason. " La Raison n'a jamais fait grande chose," as the K. of Prussia says in his Histoire de mon temps. The more extracts you send me from your Journals, the more you will oblige me,-I beg especially a Copy of my Character. I know very well it must be a partial Panegyrick. I will send you my criticisms upon it. You know I have no affectation of Modesty. My Comfort is that such vain Folly as Cicero, Neckar, Sir William Temple and I are never dangerous. If I said in 1777 that "we should never be qualified for Republican Government till we were ambitious to be poor" I meant to express an Impossibility. I meant then and now say that No Nation under Heaven ever OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 57 was, now is, or ever will be qualified for a Republican Government, unless you mean by these words, Equal Laws resulting from a Ballance of three Powers, the Monarchical, Aristocratical and Democratical. I meant more and I now repeat more explicitly, that Americans are peculiarly unfit for any Republic but the Aristo- Democratical-Monarchy; because they are more Ava- ricious than any other Nation that ever existed the Carthaginians and Dutch not excepted. The Alieni appetens sui profusus reigns in this nation as a Body more than any other I have ever seen. When I went to Europe in 1778 I was full of patriotic Projects like yours of collecting Improvements in Arts, Agriculture, Manufacture, Commerce, Litterature, and Science. But I soon found my error. I found that my offices demanded every moment of my time and the assistance of two or three Clerks, and that all this was not enough. I was obliged to make it a Rule never to go out of my Road for any Curiosity of any kind. J. J. Rousseau understood it very well when he said that Ambassadors " doivent tout leur temps a cet objet unique, ils sont trop honnetes gens pour voler leur argent." Emile, Tom. 4. p. 361. If he meant this as a Sarcasm he was in the wrong. I never knew one who attempted or affected Philosophy, that was good for any Thing in the Diplomatique Line-and I know that every Hour that I might have employed that way would have been a Robbery upon the duties of my Public Char- acter. Your Family pictures are charming, and the tender Piety you express for your Mother, is felt by me in all its force, as I have a Mother living in her eighty second year, to whom I owe more than I can ever pay. This 58 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Mother and a Father who died 30 years ago, two of the best People I ever knew, formed the Character that you have drawn. Alas ! that it is no better ! I said before that Vanity is not dangerous. A Man who has bad designs is seldom or never vain. It is such modest Rascals as Caesar, who play tricks with Mankind. Read his Commentaries-what consummate caution to conceal his Vanity1 Contemptu famae, fama augebatur. This Tyrants and Villains always know. Adieu Mon Ami John Adams. Pray can you recollect a Feast at Point no Point in the Fall of 1775 and the Company that returned with you and me in a Boat and our Conversation. I want a List of the Names of that Party who re- turned in the same Boat with us to Philadelphia. Dr. Rush. New York April 18. 1790. Dear Sir,-Your Letter of April 13, soars above the visible diurnal sphere. I own to you that avarice, ambition, the Love of Fame &c., are all mysterious Passions. They are the greatest absurdities, Delu- sions and Follies that can be imagined, if in this Life only we had hope. In the Boat on our Return from Point no Point, the principal Topick of Conversation was Independence. An intercepted Letter early in 1775 had informed the world that I was for Independence : and my sentiments on this head were no secret in Congress from May 1775. But I was left too much alone. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 59 The Company in the Boat appeared to me, then and ever since, to have invited me to be of their Party, that they might all assure me in that Confidential manner, that they were of my mind and would ultimately sup- port me. There was not one of the Company I believe, who in the Course of the Passage did not repeatedly assure me, that in his opinion we must be independent. That evenings Conversation was a great encourage- ment to me ever after. How many Follies and indiscreet Speeches do your minutes in your Note Book bring to my Recollection, which I had forgotten forever! Alas I fear I am not yet much more prudent. Your Character of Mr. Paine is very well and very just. To The Accusation against me which you have re- corded in your Note Book of 17th. of March last, I plead not guilty. I deny both Charges. I deny an "Attachment to Monarchy," and I deny that I have "changed my Principles since 1776." No Letter of mine to Mr. Hooper was ever printed that I know of. Indeed I have but a very confused Recollection of having ever written him any Letter. If any Letter has been printed in my Name I desire to see it. You know that a Letter of mine to Mr. Wythe was printed by Dunlap, in Jany. 1776 under the Title of Thoughts on Government in a Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend. In that Pamphlet I recommended a Leg- islature in three independent Branches and to such a Legislature I am still attached. But I own at that time I understood very little of the subject, and if I had changed my opinions should have no scruple to avow it. I own that awful experience has concurred with 60 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Reading and Reflection to convince me that Americans are more rapidly disposed to Corruption in Elections, than I thought they were fourteen years ago. My Friend Dr. Rush will excuse me if I caution him against a fraudulent use of the words Monarchy and Republick. I am a mortal and irreconcileable enemy to Monarchy. I am no Friend to hereditary limited Monarchy in America. This I know can never be ad- mitted without an hereditary Senate to controul it; and an hereditary Nobility or Senate in America I know to be unattainable and impracticable. I should scarcely be for it, if it were attainable. Dont therefore my Friend misunderstand me and misrepresent me to Pos- terity. I am for a Ballance between the Legislative and Executive Powers and I am for enabling the Execu- tive to be at all times capable of maintaining the Bal- lance between the Senate and House or in other words between the Aristocratical and Democratical Interests. Yet I am for having all three Branches elected at stated Periods; and these elections I hope will continue, until the People shall be convinced, that Fortune, Providence or Chance, call it which you will, is better than election. If the time should come when Corruption shall be added to Intrigue and Manoeuvre in elections and produce civil War, then in my opinion Chance will do better than Choice for all but the House of Representatives. Accept my Thanks for your polite and obliging Invi- tation to Philadelphia. Nothing would give me greater Pleasure than such a visit, but I must deny myself that satisfaction. I know I have friends in Pensilvania, and such as I esteem very highly as the Friends of Virtue, Liberty and Good Government. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 61 What you may mean by " more than British degrees of Corruption" at New York and by sophisticated Government, I know not. The Continent is a kind of a Whispering Gallery and Acts and Speeches are re- verberated round from N. York in all Directions. The Report is very loud at a distance, when the Whisper is very gentle in the Center. But if you see such Corrup- tions in your Countrymen, on what do you found your hopes ? I lament the deplorable Condition of my Country, which seems to be under such a Fatality that the People can agree upon nothing. When they seem to agree they are so unsteady, that it is but for a Moment. That Changes may be made for the better is probable. I know of no Change that would occasion much Danger but that of President. I wish very heartily that a Change of Vice President could be made tomorrow. I have been too ill used in the office to be fond of it, if I had not been introduced into it, in a manner that made it a disgrace. I will never serve in it again upon such Terms. Though I have acted in public with immense Multitudes, I have had few friends, and these certainly not interested ones:-these I shall ever love in public or private. Adieu my dear Sir J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Mount Wollaston, alias Quincy Feb. 6. 1805. Dear Sir,-It seemeth unto me, that you and I ought not to die without saying Goodby or bidding each other Adieu. Pray how do you do ? How does that excel- 62 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. lent Lady Mrs. R. ? How are the young Ladies? Where is my Surgeon and Lt.? How fares the Law- yer ? Two learned and famous Physicians, Sydenham and Rush, have taught us that the Plague and the Yellow Fever and all other epidemic Diseases, when they pre- vail in a City, convert all other Disorders into Plague. I cannot help thinking that Democracy is a Distemper of this kind and when it is once set in motion and ob- tains a Majority it converts every Thing good bad and indifferent into the dominant epidemic. Here is our good old New England, almost as far gone as the united Irishmen in Pensilvania, as some People think and say, I am not however of that opinion yet. In good sooth, my old Friend, are Pensylvania and New York, at present, in the system of their true In- terests? Has our old Friend McKean assisted in con- juring up a spirit from the vasty Deep that he is unable to lay ? Let me put a few Questions to your Conscience, for I know you have one. Is the present state of the Na- tion Republican enough? Is Virtue the Principle of our Government? Is honour? Or is Ambition and avarice, adulation, Baseness, Covetousness, the thirst of Riches, indifference concerning the Means of rising and enriching, the contempt of Principle, the spirit of Party and of Faction the Motive and the Principle that gov- erns? These are serious and dangerous Questions: but Serious Men ought not to flinch from dangerous questions. Mr. Thomas and I have been reading together the Impeachment in the State Tryals, and we find that all Nations are too much alike. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 63 My Family unite with me in presenting respects and assurances of old Regard to you and yours. J. Adams. Dr. Benjamin Rush. Quincy Feb. 27. 1805. Dear Sir,-I have just now received your friendly Letter of the 19th. and rejoice with you sincerely in the Wellfare of your Family. I wish you had but named the Captain in the British Army who has been so for- tunate as to marry your second daughter. Many of those officers are worthy Men, and you are much in the wrong to deplore her as lost to you, for Life. Neither Upper Canada nor England are so far off, but you may often hear from her, and much of her happiness. How many other daughters have you and what are their names? John I doubt not will do well, and Richard with patience and perseverence indispensable in a Law- yer, sometimes and indeed commonly through a long Noviciate, will have no cause to fear. No civilized Society can do without Lawyers. Now for the first Part of your Letter. I have enjoyed as much health for the last four years as during any part of my Life: and my spirits have been as cheerfull as they ever were since some sin, to me unknown, in- volved me in Politicks. It must have been my own, for my father had certainly none towards me, and as little toward God or Man as any Man I ever knew in my Life. You hear I am still facetious upon some subjects. But my facetiousness you know was al- ways awkward and seldom understood. When I was 64 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. young I had two intimate Friends, Jonathan Sewall and Daniel Leonard-they both went away to Eng- land in 1775. These used to tell me I had a little capilary vein of satire, meandering about in my soul, and it broke out so strangely, suddenly and irregularly, that it was impossible ever to foresee when it would come or how it would appear. I have thought of this sometimes and have had reasons enough to do so. Cer- tainly there is none of the Caustic of Juvenal in it: cer- tainly none of the wit of Horace: and I fear little or none of his good nature or good humour. It is like Whitefords Punns. He made one once at my Table so extremely neat and pertinent but at the same time so far fetched, that it set the Table in a roar. Whiteford said I, how could you think of that? it is so extremely remote and yet so exact, that I am sure I could not have found it in twenty years study. Lord, said he, I know not, I found it right before me. I stumbled on it, before I saw it. It came of itself, I did not hunt it. At least in this I resemble Whiteford, the Cross Reader. I know nothing of any facetiousness in myself. If it is ever there it comes of itself, I hunt it not. You will expect from me the garrulity of narrative old age, and here you have it. Now for the latter part of your Letter. I resemble you and Sancho. I call for my Leavers and Iron Bars, for my Chissells, Drills and Wedges to split Rocks, and for my Waggons to cart Seaweed for manure upon my farm. I mount my Horse and ride on the sea shore : and I walk upon Mount Wollaston and Stonyfield Hill. Notwithstanding all this I read the public Papers and Documents, and I cannot and will not be indifferent to the Condition and Prospects of my Country. I love OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 65 the People of America and believe them to be incapable of Ingratitude. They have been, they may be, and they are deceived. It is the Duty of Somebody to undeceive them. A Philosopher like Linnaeus might safely appeal to the Boys. But what are those to do who are to be tried by Boys on the Testimony of false Witnesses. Boys who are to have laid before them a Dozen Vollumes of lying Newspapers and Pamphlets edited annually for twenty, thirty or forty years together without any con- tradiction, and aggravated by as many more volumes of private Letters at least as lying as the Newspapers. An Appeal to the last day, eternal Justice and an assembled World, like Judge Chase, to be sure is per- fect safety when it can be made. Although I have no doubt that able and upright Man could make it with sincerity as to his Integrity and good Intentions, yet I confess, for myself I should rather say at that Tribunal "God be merciful to me a sinner." Yet if called to such a Tryal as his I could do as he did, and I believe I should have done it. My Family join in friendly regards to yours, with your old Friend, and humble servant J. Adams. N.B.-Let me enquire after Lucius Horatius Stockton. I will never forget him, because he was the only Man in America who understood my Administration and had the spirit to avow it and explain it in print. Dr. Beniamin Rush. J. Adams. 66 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy April n. 1805. Dear Sir,-I am highly gratified to possess so au- thentic an account of the several rising branches of your numerous and amiable Family, in whose welfare I feel so much Interest, that I ask your Permission to add my Benediction to yours. It is to me highly probable that those who have been carried Captive into the British Dominions, will succeed as well in Life, as those who may be destined to enjoy all the Honours, Glories and Felicities of our American Government in one Center and that Center the Nation. I hear the most respecta- ble Testimonies of the arduous studies and uncommon Eloquence of your son Richard. But whether to con- gratulate you or him upon this subject I know not. It is very problematical whether Talents or Fame in this Country are desirable or not. I admire the Brilliancy of your Invention when asleep. I know not whether Esop or Phedrus or La Fontaigne, or Moore or Gay have given us a more ingenious Fable, than yours of the Man upon the Ball, of the steeple of Christ Church. The structure and application of the Fiction are very clear. But the Moral I cannot ap- prove. I cannot quite reconcile it to Philosophy, Mo- rality or Religion. When I was almost tempted to wish I could reconcile it to all that is good, I recollected un- fortunately a pair of Couplets in Prior and began to doubt whether the Devil had not mounted on the Golden Ball instead of an angel of Light. The Truth is this: I cannot stay Flaring in sunshine all the Day: For entre nous, we hellish Sprites Love more the Frolic of the Nights; OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 67 And oftener our receipts convey In Dreams than any other Way. If however it were certain that no more Impression can be made upon Men, than was made upon the Wind and Weather by the Man upon the Ball, your Inference and conclusion would be logical. But when we know what Impressions have been made by Freeneau, Lloyd, Andrew Brown, Peter Markoe, Bache, Callender, Duane, Wood, Cheetham, Denniston, Ben Austin, Tom Paine and others of that stamp, shall we conclude that no Im- pression can be made in favour of Truth and Virtue by the popular Talents and scientifical attainments of Dr. Rush ? If so the Cause of Liberty is lost. Mistake me not however, my worthy Friend. It was far from my Intention in any Thing I have written to stimu- late you to any exertions beyond your Inclination. You have done enough and suffered enough in the Cause of Liberty and Humanity. And unless your encourage- ments and Rewards had been greater, and unless your prospects of success were better you may fairly be ex- cused. But " The Stirrs," in Pensylvania indicate the return of Zubly's Government, or rather the Franklinian System of a Government in one Center, which will be followed by other States. If I were a Painter I would sketch it. A splendid Coach drawn by six fiery Coursers, like those of Achilles, in full Gallop con- stantly lashed by a drunken Coachman, should start from the top of the Peak of Teneriff, down the steepest Pitch of the Mountain. The Gentlemen, Ladies and Children, of whom the Coach should be full should thrust their heads out of the windows before, behind and on each side, expressing in their Countenances the 68 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Passions of their hearts and especially their desire of leaping out, checked by the Horror of the Precipice. Remember ! there must be no Horses hitched on behind the Coach to draw up Hill, to check the progress to destruction. This would be too aristocratical. Per- haps it would be thought to give some Priviledge to Virtue, Talents, Courage, Industry, Frugality or even to services, sufferings, sacrifices, or what is more horrible still to Property, Birth or Genius or Learning! Believe me, my Friend, a Government in one Center is as hostile to Law, Physick and Divinity, and even to Pen, Ink, Paper, Inkhorns, standishes, and even to read- ing and Cyphering as it is to Starrs and Garters, to Crown and Sceptres or any other exclusive Priviledges. It is content with no state of society that ever existed. Negroes, Indians and Caffrarians cannot bear Democ- racy any more than Bonaparte and Talleyrand. I thank you sir for your valuable Pamphlet on the effects of ardent spirits on soul and Body. I read it like all your other writings with much Pleasure and Profit. My Family all join me in Love to you and yours. My Letter is shockingly written: because it was written in a hurry. You will excuse it. From your respectfull Friend and Serv't. J. Adams. P.S.-I forgot to ask a favour of you, which is to let me know the Month, year and day of our Feast at Point No Point, and the Names of the Gentlemen with whom I had the honor and the pleasure to return in a Boat. J. A. Dr. Benjamin Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 69 Your Letter, my dear Friend, of the 29th. of June, suggests enough of serious reflections to compose a longer reply than I am at present disposed to write, or than you could read with any satisfaction. John Ross, and I think some others, whom you have not mentioned, were in the Boat with us from Point no Point. I wish to ascertain if I could the Month and Day as well as the names of the Company. The Subject all the time, was Independence. It made an impression on me, because it seemed intended for my Instruction and edification. There is something in my Composition which restrains me from Rancour against any Man, with whom I have once lived in Friendship. Mr. McKean, is one, among many of my old Friends, who have been separated from me by political Causes. I cannot rejoice at the embar- rassment he is in, or the humiliation that seems to be preparing for him. He is one of the last Men in the United States who could consistently with his Principles or disposition, throw himself into the Arms of a Demo- cratic faction. It will be very curious, if Duane should appear to be an overmatch for him, and his Friends. Yet even this may happen in Pensilvania. McKean, Dallas and Coxe are not at home in the democratical pallace. They must be ejected from that House of Pride, as Spencer describes it, or the House will be divided against itself. I have not seen an Aurora a long time: but last night I was told that in the late Papers of Mr. Duane, he or his writers, are elaborately answering my Defence, and recommending a Government in one assembly. Quincy July 7. 1805. 6 70 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. This coincides with your account that the old errors on the subject of Government Learning and Lawyers are revived. There is a Body of People in every State in the Union, who are both in heart and head of this sect. This Tribe will always be courted by the seekers of Popularity and opposers of a good systematick Govern- ment. They are properly the Sansculottes of this Coun- try. Whoever courts them and builds upon them, will find himself in the situation of Danton, who made two speeches on the subject, which reveal the whole Mys- tery. "They now cry Danton and Robespierre," said he, " but the moment they change the order and cry Vive Robespierre and Danton, off goes my head." Another saying of Danton was this, " They have driven us into the arms of the Sansculottes; and Sansculot- tism has destroyed France; it has ruined us all, and will very soon destroy itself." Danton however was not the first nor the last Demagogue who has gone down into the Pit with his eyes open. It would indeed seem as if Mankind were destined to be slaves, as you tell me I said 30 years ago. All History and all experience seem to evince such a ten- dency. There is Liberty, however, and there has been in some ages and Countries; and if this fact is admit- ted, wise Men should never despair, but always remem- ber that no effort will be lost. When I said " the sooner they fulfill their Destiny the better," I saidas peevish and extravagant a thing as Brutus did, when he said he found Virtue but a shadow, though he had worshipped her all his days as a Goddess. Such foolish escapes of ill humour ought not to be remembered: or if not for- gotten they ought to be reprobated. Pennsylvania is not alone. Every State in the Union OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 71 is in her case, in a larger or smaller degree. Patriotism in this Country must be tinctured with English or french devotion, or be without support, and almost without friends. Independent, unadulterated, impartial Amer- icanism is like Hayleys Old Maid, a decayed Tree in a vast desert plain of sand, or like Burkes old oak, torn up by the roots and laid prostrate by the late hurricane. Every State in the Union has a Party, like your "old wealthy native Citizens," who are still Englishmen in their hearts, and will afford a mere American no sup- port. These factions from the Mississippi to St. Croix, have made it a fixed Principle all along to hunt down every true American and every Revolutionary Charac- ter, as soon as they possibly could, and get them out of the way. They were all in one of these Parties taught to turn their eyes, for this purpose upon that Scottish Creole Alexander Hamilton as their head, and what he was to do with them or what they were to do with him I will not at present conjecture, but I have an opinion which may one day be develloped, Probably it went no further than an alliance with England, and an aliena- tion from France, without well considering what must have been the necessary effect of such a Plan. In this they fundamentally departed from my system, and my Maxim which you know I have preached and inculcated for thirty years and which Jefferson has been mean enough to steal from me and display as his own, " Friend- ship and Commerce with all Nations, alliances with none." Washington learned it from me too, as you very well know, and practised upon it, as far as he could, to my certain knowledge and by my constant advice at a time when he consulted me in every thing, to the infinite Jealousy of Hamilton. Your Lady's Father Judge 72 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Stockton, knew very well that this was my Maxim on the day of the vote of Independence, and his son Horatio seems to have heard it from his Father. For he wrote with more Cognizance de cause, at a certain critical Period, than any other writer in America. Even he however was too fulsome to Washington. I am always mortified when I see my administration supported by the Name, Opinion or authority of that Man, great and good as he certainly was. If my Conduct cannot be justified by Reason, Justice and the public good, without the smallest aid from the Prejudices or Caprices of the People, or from the Judgment of any single Indi- vidual on Earth, I pray that it may be condemned. The human understanding is very well in the ordinary affairs of Life. In Architecture, Men consider the ele- ments about them, the earth, the air, the water and the fire, and construct their houses very well to guard against the Dangers and Inconveniences of each. In Dress, in Furniture, in Equipage, they consult nature tolerably well, and provide for their Comfort and De- cency. But in Government they seem to be destitute of common sense. The Nature of Men and Things is laid out of the Question. Experiment which is admitted in all other Arts and Sciences, is wholly unheeded in this. A strange Disposition prevails, throughout all stages of Civilization, to live in Hollow Trees, and Log Houses without Chimneys or Windows, without any division of the Parlour from the Kitchen, or the Garret from the Cellar. I cheerfully agree to confine your Letter to my family upon condition that you confine mine to yours. For mercy sake dont hint any thing from me to Tench Coxe or Tom Paine, to Pierpoint Edwards or Dr. Dana. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 73 My Family join in Love to yours, with your old Friend and faithfull servant J. Adams. Dr. Rush. My dear old Friend,-Your favour of the 14th. gives an exact Analysis of Pennsylvania and its Parties: and from it a probability results, that the old Constitu- tion will be revived. But for what reason do you call it Dr. Franklins ? I always understood it to be the work of Cannon, Matlock, Young and Paine, and that Franklin, though President of the Convention, had no greater hand in its fabrick than the painted head of a Ship has in her Pilotage and navigation. I remember to have heard, that during my absence from Congress, either before its departure from Phyla- delphia in 1777 or after its arrival in Baltimore, motions were made by R. H. Lee and Mr. Samuel Adams, for sending fresh Instructions to Dr. Franklin, Mr. Deane and Mr. Arthur Lee, authorizing them to offer to the French Court some additional articles of alliance, war- ranty or Priviledges in trade, which at my Instance had been carefully avoided in the Plan of the Treaty and in the first Instructions. I should be very much obliged to you, if you can recollect and write me the particulars. I am extreamly sorry you relinquished your design of writing Memoirs of the American Revolution. The burning of your Documents was, let me tell you, a very rash action, and by no means justifiable upon good Prin- ciples. Truth, Justice and Humanity are of eternal obligation, and we ought to preserve the evidence, Quincy August 23rd. 1805. 74 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. which can alone support them. I do not intend to let every Lye impose upon Posterity. You rank Colonel Hamilton among the Revolutionary Characters. But why ? The Revolution had its begin- ning, its middle and its end before he had any thing to do in public affairs, Col. Reed, Col. Harrison and Mr. Edmund Randolph were Secretaries to General Wash- ington before Hamilton was in his Family, as an aid du camp or scribe. I never knew that such a Man or Boy was in his suite, nor did I ever hear the Name of Hamil- ton, till after the evacuation of New York this Boy came forward a bawling advocate for the Tories. Then Smith, Humphreys and Hamilton were first talked of as aids. They were all advocates for the Tories, and honorably and justly so because the Tories had clear rights to the stipulations of the Treaty of Peace. Hamil- tons zeal in their favour procured him their votes and Interest not only in the city of New York but all over the Continent as long as he lived. He quitted the Army for a long time as I have heard, in a Pet and a Miff with Washington. Great Art has been used to propagate an opinion that Hamilton was the Writer of Washing- tons best Letters and most popular addresses ; espe- cially that to the Governors of the States on his resigna- tion of the Command of the Army. This I know to be false. It was the joint production of Col. Humphries and another Gentleman a better writer and more judi- cious Politician, whom I will not name at present. The Revolution began in strict exactness from the surrender of Montreal in 1759. It took a gloomy and dreadful form in 1761, so as to convince me at least that it would be inevitable. It continued to 1776 when on the fourth of July it was completed. The Part we OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 75 acted from 1761 to 1776 was more difficult, more dan- gerous and more disagreable than all that happened afterwards till the Peace of 1783. I know therefore of no fair title that Hamilton has to a revolutionary Character. You say that Washington and Hamilton are idolized by the Tories. Hamilton is: Washington is not. To speak the Truth they puffed Washington like an air balloon to raise Hamilton into the air. Their Preachers, their orators, their Pamphlets and Newspapers have spoken out and avowed publickly since Hamiltons death, what I very well knew to be in their hearts for many years before, viz : that Hamilton was every Thing and Washington but a Name. Even as our Massachu- setts Democrats have last year been left to acknowl- edge that Mr. Handcock was a Cypher and Mr. Sullivan the figure. Both with as much falshood as ingratitude. The "quantum profuisti de fabula Christi" of Leo the tenth which you apply to the funding system with so much ingenuity, I cannot think applicable with strict Justice. I know not how Hamilton could have done otherwise. To be sure it was a very lucrative turn of affairs to some People. Hamiltons Talents have been greatly exaggerated. His knowledge of the great sub- jects of Coin and Commerce, and their intimate Con- nection with all Departments of every Government, especially such as are so elective as ours, was very superficial and imperfect. He had derived most of his Information from Duer, who was a Brother in Law of Mr. Rose, the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under Mr. Pitt. Duer had been long Secretary to the Board of Treasury. Lee, Osgood and Livingston were all Men of Abilities and kept the Books of the Treasury 76 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. in good order. Duer became assistant Secretary of the Treasury to Hamilton. Our old Treasury under the old Congress, had its Register, its Auditor, &c., so that little alteration was made besides abolishing the Board and placing a Secretary in its stead. Wolcotts indefatigable Industry with a seven years experience at the Connecticutt Pay Table, came in aid of Hamilton and Duer. So that I see no extraordinary reason for so much exclusive Glory to Hamilton. I have never had but one opinion of Banks. One National Bank with a Branch for each State, the whole inexorably limited to ten or fifteen millions of Dollars, is the ut- most length the which my Judgment can go. The Army was none of my Work. I only advised a few Companies of Artillery to garrison our most exposed forts that a single frigate, or Picaroon Privateer might not take them at the first assault. Hamiltons Project of an Army of fifty thousand Men, ten thousand of them to be horse, appeared to me to be proper only for Bedlam. His Friends however in Senate and the House em- barassed me with a Bill for more Troops than I wanted. When I first took the Chair I was extreamly desirous of availing myself of Mr. Madisons abilities, experience, Reputation and amiable qualities. But the violent Party Spirit of Hamiltons Friends, jealous of every Man who possessed qualifications to eclipse him, prevented it. I could not do it without quarrelling outright with my Ministers, whom Washingtons appointment had made my Masters, and I gave it up. Yet Hamilton himself intrigued in a curious manner, which I may perhaps ex- plain hereafter, if you desire it. Colonel Burr is another, whom I was desirous of making a Brigadier General. I proposed it to Wash- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 77 ington, who said he had reason to believe that Burr would make a good officer: but the question was whether he would not be too good at Intrigue. I have reason to believe, that Washington proposed it to Hamilton and that he prevented it. My Reason for this belief I will also give you if you wish to know it. Upon second thought, as I have paper enough I may as well tell you now. Col. Burr, visited me at Phyladelphia as he always did when he came near me, and asked me whether I had authorized Hamilton to propose to him an appointment in the Army. As I never had men- tioned or suggested the Idea to Hamilton, I answered No. Burr said that Hamilton had frequently of late asked him what he thought of an appointment, and whether he could cordially cooperate with Washington. Burr said he answered that he despized Washington, as a Man of no Talents, and one who could not spell a sentence of common English. I reproved Burr for this sally and said his Prejudices made him very unreason- able : for to my certain Knowledge Washington was not so illiterate. Burr said he was determined the first time he saw me, to ask me whether Hamilton had been moved by me, or whether his questions to him were in- sidious. I explained nothing to Burr and he knows not to this day, that I ever mentioned him or thought of him for an appointment. My Conclusion is however that Washington had mentioned it to Hamilton, but his Jealousy of Burr would not allow him to consent. Affections between the Families as usual. Injunc- tions will be observed. _ Dr. Rush. J. Adams. 78 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Dear Sir,-Although it is a gratification to my feel- ings to write to you and a much greater Pleasure to receive a Letter from you ; yet I have no desire to give you any trouble, or the least anxiety on my account when your answer is delayed. I know your avocations and respect them. No Apology is ever necessary for any pause in our Correspondence. The Journals of Congress afford little light, in deve- loping the real History of the years 1774, 1775, 1776 and 1777. By the contrivance of a secret Journal, and another refinement of a third more select and subli- mated still, the most important motions and their movers are still concealed from the public, and some of them will never be known. In a Letter I wrote to Judge Chase dated Philadelphia July 9. 1776,! find these words " Your motion last fall, for sending Ambassadors to France, with conditional instructions, was murdered, terminating in a committee of secret correspondence, which came to nothing." The Truth is, that in consequence of many conversa- tions and consultations between Mr. Chase and me, he made a Motion in Congress in the fall of the year 1775 for sending Ambassadors to France. I seconded his Motion. You know the State of the Nerves of Con- gress at that time. Although you was not then a Member, you had opportunities enough to have felt the Pulse of that Body. Whether the effect of the motion resembled the shock of Electricity, of Mesmerism or of Galvanism, the most exactly, I leave you Philosophers to determine. But the Grimaces, the agitations and convulsions were very great. Knowing the composi- Quincy September 30. 1805. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 79 tion of Congress at that time, you will be at no loss to conjecture the parts which were taken in the debate, which ensued, which was very vehement. It was a measure which I had long contemplated, and as I then thought and have confidently believed from that time to this, well digested. The Principle of Foreign Affairs which I then advocated, has been the invariable guide of my conduct, in all situations, as Ambassador in France, Holland and England, and as Vice President and President of the United States, from that hour to this. It was indeed my unchangeable adherence to this principle, that turned those whom you call Tories, and which the Bostonians call Essex Junto against me in the election of ib'oo. This Principle was that we should make no Treaties of Allyance with any European Power: that we should consent to none but Treaties of Commerce : that we should separate ourselves as far as possible, and as long as possible from all European Politicks and Wars. In discussing the variety of motions which were made as substitutes for Mr. Chase's I was remarkably cool, and for me unusually eloquent. On no occasion before or after did I ever make a greater Impression on Con- gress. Caesar Rodney told me, I had opened an entire new field to his view, and removed all his difficulties concerning foreign Connections. Mr. Duane said to me "We all give you great Credit for that speech, and we all agree that you have more fully considered and better digested the subject of foreign Connections than any Man we have ever heard speak upon the subject." Although Mr. Dickinson was then offended with me on account of an intercepted Letter, and never spoke to me personally, yet I was told that Mr. Dickinson 80 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. was highly pleased with my sentiments on foreign affairs. All this you will call Vanity and Egotism. Such in- deed it is. But Jefferson and Hamilton, ought not to steal from me my good Name, and robb me of the reputation of a system which I was born to introduce, refin'd it first and skew'd its use, as really as Dean Swift did Irony. After all our argumentation however, we could not carry our Motion ; but after twenty subtle projects to get rid of it, the whole terminated in a Committee of Secret Correspondence. When the Ballots were taken, not one of the Committee was from the Eastern States. Franklin, Dickinson, Jay, &c., were elected. On the same evening or the next, Mr. Jay came to my Lodg- ings at Mrs. Yards, came up to my Chamber and said he came on purpose to take a pipe with me. He accord- ingly spent the whole evening with me over a bottle of wine, and many pipes of tobacco. He seemed to me to be apprehensive of ill Consequences, from the result of Mr. Chase's motion, and particularly apologized for my not being on the Committee. I told him I had no more pretensions than others to be upon the Commit- tee and had no particular desire of it. But I thought it extraordinary that no Member from the Massachusetts nor indeed from New England was elected, and I could not account for it. Indeed it appeared to me alarming, and indicated a spirit of Intrigue, and a manoeuvre of Party, that must injure the common cause. Mr. Jay said I was right, and it was a thing that ought to be ex- plained. He added "You would undoubtedly have been chosen, but for one reason. Your Reputation is OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 81 very high in Congress. To my Knowledge nothing prevents you from being universally acknowledged to be the first Man in Congress, but your known intimate Connection with two Gentlemen, Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee. Congress is divided and parties are high, and these two Men have been the cause of it." I answered that I had no pretension to be thought the first Man in Congress, nor if I had the clearest title to it, should I choose to have it acknowledged. There was too much danger in it of all sorts. That Mr. Adams and Mr. Lee were very intimate friends, because they were able and zealous friends of their Country, and surely I could not relinquish my friendship for them, for the sake of acquiring any reputation, or Influence what- ever. You know I presume that the Virginians always had a pique against R. H. Lee, and among the secret Motives that produced Parties, Combinations and In- trigues in Congress and the army too, I know of none that had greater effect. Long after this came the Motion for a Committee to prepare a plan of a Treaty to be offered to France. I was of this Committee and drew up the plan. I care- fully excluded every Idea of Alliance: and reported a mere Treaty of Commerce. This occasioned debate and even my friends R. H. Lee and Samuel Adams differed from me in opinion. They thought France would have no Motive to treat with us and proposed and Warrantees. I opposed them; and pre- vailed ; and Franklin sailed for France with only a Treaty of Commerce in his Portfolio. I constantly as- serted that any Thing like a Treaty of Alliance would make us forever the Sport of the Politicks of the Cabinetts of Europe: whereas our Duty and Interest 82 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. both would exact from us a perfect Neutrality in all European Wars at least as long as the European Powers would permit it. If any one of them should force a War upon us, we must meet it like Men ; but we should avoid it with the utmost caution and anxiety. My opinion of the French Revolution has never varied from the first assembly of the Notables to this hour. I always dreaded it, and never had any faith in its success or utility. It has carried Europe forward with rapid steps to the Fate of Sodom and Gomorrow, Tyre and Sydon in its Course to Barbarity. My Friend Brissol has recorded a Conversation he held with me at my House in Grosvenor Square which I esteem as a Trophy. He says and says truly that I told him the French Nation were not capable of a free Government, and that they had no right or Cause to engage in a Revolution. By this I did not mean that a Nation has not a right to alter the Government, to change a Dynasty or institute a new Constitution in the place of an old one : for no Man is clearer on these points than I am: but I know that the Nation was not disposed to a Revolution, and that it never could be made a national Act: as indeed it never was. I knew the Men and the Families who were at the bottom of it. The Rochefaucaults, the Noailles, the Le Moinons, and Orleans with their satelites not one Man of whom knew what he was about. I rejoice that you do not despair. A Pendulum that vibrates seconds must vibrate half a second one Way before it can return to vibrate the other. I will not give any opinion whether it is advisable to stop the watch, or let it run on. I pity McKean. He has sinned and has been sinned against. Many curious OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 83 and instructive Anecdotes might be told. He was carried away with the french revolution, and he paid too much court to Dallas, Gallatin, and others of that stamp. But on the other hand he was not fairly treated by the Federalists. I say no more at present. Moreau's opinion of Bonaparte, that he possesses consummate military abilities, will not be disputed. Macedonias Madman or the Sweed will not be his Rival. His Wife, gave him his Character, as truly as Moreau. " The Child of Mars and of Fortune." Great Talents, great qualities and great Luck will not be denied him. But hereafter he will be thought on many occasions headlong and rash in full proportion to his other great qualities. I am fully convinced that the yellow fever sometimes and indeed often is generated in many places in America, especially in our great Cities, by natural Causes of putrefaction, but not yet quite clear that it is not con- tagious and frequently imported. I therefore as David Hume said of himself in Paris, dine with the Dinnerites and sup with the Supperites. I am for cleansing the Cities with all possible Industry, and at the same time, for maintaining the Quarantine Laws, to keep it out from abroad. At the same time I must confess my total In- capacity to judge in this Case, for want of experience and Theory too : and therefore that my opinion is not worth any thing: I would say were not worth a Rush, if it were not a most detestable punn. The Class of People in your State, who oppose you, have always adopted a Principle to oppose to the ut- most of their Power every Man who had any conspicu- ous share in the Revolution. The similar Class in every State acts on the same Principle. Hence the universal 84 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. agreement, and strenuous exertions of that Class to ascribe the whole Revolution to Washington, and the whole Federal Government to Hamilton. If my little political Anecdotes are interesting to your son Richard of whom I have conceived high hopes, he shall have as many more as he pleases. When the office of Treasurer of the Mint was vacant, I had, as nearly as I recollect about forty applications for it. I never had more difficulty in examining and comparing testimonies, qualifications, merits, &c., in order to determine conscientiously in my own Mind, whom to nominate. After the most serious delibera- tion, and weighing every Mans pretensions I concluded to give the office to Dr. Rush who had not applied for it. Among the solicitors for this twelve hundred dollars a year was the Honorable Frederick Augustus Muhlen- berg, who wrote me a Letter with his own hand, signed with his name, beseeching me to give it him. He some- time before wrote me a Letter, requesting that I would nominate him to some suitable appointment without specifying any. I was desirous of obliging him, I pittied his Situation, and I was very sensible of the Policy of attaching the Germans to the national Gov- ernment. During the half War with France, General Peter Muhlenbourg applied to me directly for a Commission in the Army and expressly said he would make no con- ditions or difficulties about Rank. I concluded from this that General Muhlenbourg was convinced of the Justice and necessity of the War, and I would have been very happy to have appointed him notwithstanding his Party in Politicks. Accordingly I proposed him to General Washington, who allowed him to be a good OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 85 officer. But I was only Vice Roy under Washington and he was only Vice Roy under Hamilton and Hamil- ton was Vice Roy under the Tories as you call them and Peter Muhlenbourg was not appointed. Against the appointment of Augustus there were such remonstrances made to me and such representa- tions of instances of his then late Misconduct and Dis- honesty, that I dared not appoint him. Now let me propose to your son Richard, a political Theorem or two for his solution. 1. If Washington had seen as I did, and consented to the appointment of Coll. Burr, as a Brigadier in the Army, a rank and command he would have eagerly accepted for he was then in great humiliation and near dispair, what would at this hour have been the situation of the United States? Would the Manhattan Bank have ever been founded ? Would the momentary union of the Livingstons and Clintons have ever been formed ? Would the State of New York have been democrified so? Would not the Federal Candidates have had the unanimous votes of the Electors for that State ? 2. If I had appointed Augustus Muhlenberg, Treas- urer of the Mint, or Peter, a Brigadier in the Army, would Augustus have united with Tench Coxe at Lan- caster in that impudent and insolent address to the Public, with their Names in which I was so basely slandered and belied? If the Germans had been gratified with appointments of these their Leaders, would not the Electors of Pensilvania have been all Federal ? and consequently the Federal cause tryum- phant ? The Case of Cooper and Priestly another time. As I have quoted a Letter to Judge Chase, and as 7 86 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Richard loves political curiosities I will send a Copy of the whole Letter. I doubt the exact verity of your sons oration, when he says that " time never fails to do Justice to the Bene- factors of Mankind." Unless he means in Kingdom to come. With usual good will, yours &c J. Adams. P.S.-I admire Bonaparte's expression "The Scenery of the Business." The Scenery has often if not commonly in all the Business of human Life, at least of Public Life, more effect, than the Characters of the Dramatis Persona, or the Ingenuity of the Plott. Recollect within your own times. What but the scenery did this? or that? or the other ? Was there ever a Coup de Theatre, that had so great an effect as Jeffersons Penmanship of the Declaration of Independence ? Or as Gages exception from Pardon of Mr. J. Adams and Mr. Hancock? Or Hamiltons demand upon pain of a Pamphlet of the command in the attack of the Redoubt at Yorktown? Or Burrs Enterprise with Arnold up the River Kenne- beck? I have a great mind to write a Book on "the Scenery of the Business." You could write another much sooner and much better. I know not Major Butlers evidence of his opinion, but it is new to me, and the most probable I have ever heard. Dr. Benjamin Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 87 Quincy December 4. 1805. Dear Sir,-I am half inclined to be very angry with you for destroying the Anecdotes and Documents you had collected for private Memoirs of the American Revolution. From the Memoirs of Individuals, the true springs of events and the real motives of actions are to be made known to Posterity. The Period in the History of the World the best understood, is that of Rome from the time of Marius to the Death of Cicero, and this distinction is entirely owing to Ciceros Let- ters and orations. There we see the true character of the times and the Passions of all the Actors on the Stage. Cicero, Cato and Brutus were the only three, in whom I can discern any real Patriotism. The two last were honest in the main, but with great aberrations at times, and neither of them very able. Cicero had the most Capacity and the most constant as well as the wisest and most persevering attachment to the Repub- lick. Almost fifty years ago I read Middletons Life of this Man, with great pleasure and some advantage. Since that time I have been more conversant in his writings as well as in the other writers and general History of that Period. Within a month past I have read Middletons Life of him again, and with more pleas- ure because with more understanding than before. I seem to read the History of all ages and Nations in every Page, and especially the History of our own Country for forty years past. Change the Names and every Anecdote will be applicable to us. I said I read with pleasure ; but it was a melancholly pleasure. I know of no more melancholly Books than Sullys Memoirs and Cicero's Life. 88 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. The Tryumvirate of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, and the other of Octavius, Anthony and Lepidus, the first formed by Caesar and the last by Octavius for the purpose of worming themselves into Empire, their Shifts and Turns, their Intrigues and Cabals have analogy enough with Hamiltons schemes, to get rid of Wash- ington, Adams, Jay and Jefferson, and monopolize all Power to himself. You may introduce Burr and McKean and Clinton into the speculation if you please, and even Mr. Madison. You may pursue the subject if you think fit,-I have not patience for it. You inquire what passed between W. and Hamilton at York Town? Washing- ton had ordered or was about to order another officer to take the Command of the Attack upon the Re- doubt. Hamilton flew into a violent Passion and demanded the command of the Party for himself and declared if he had it not, he would expose General Washingtons Conduct in a Pamphlet. Thus you see Its proper power to hurt each Creature feels Bulls aim their horns, and asses lift their heels. Hamiltons Instruments of offence were Libels, not true Libels according to the New York Doctrine, but lying Libells. The storming of a Redoubt by a Boy, was to be the Coup de Theatre or the Scenery of the Business, to make him afterwards Commander in Chief of the Army and President of Congress, though there is no more qualification for either in storming a redoubt, than there would have been in killing a Deer in the Woods. The one proved him a good Partisan the other would have gained him the Reputation of a good shot: but neither would fit him to command armies or govern States. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 89 I rejoice in your Prosperity and wish it may increase. If you have sold the Copy right of your Medical Works for a thousand dollars, I am confident the Bookseller will have a good Bargain and make twice the profit of it, that you will. Those works are in universal esteem among the Faculty, and even those who differ from you on so many points. There is a concurrence, if not a combination of events that strikes me. Coll. Burr at Washington, General Dayton at Washington, General Miranda at Washing- ton, General Hull returning from his Government, General Wilkinson commanding in Louisiana &c., &c. Enterprises of great Pith may be in a State of Coction. You may say perhaps that I am jealous. But there is a long History in my memory attached to several of those names, which suggests the Possibility of profound Councils and great Results, whether good or bad I will not conjecture. If our Government should risque the giving offence to France by a war with Spain, I should be surprised. If I have been as tedious in this Letter as in my last, I will not be so long, lest I should disgust you with a Correspondence which affords great pleasure to your Friend and humble servant Dr. Rush. John Adams. Quincy Jan. 25th. 1806. Dear Sir,-The new edition of your medical works, mentioned in your favour of the sixth of this month, have been committed to Mr. Shaw my Nephew whom you know, and will be sent to me from Boston in due 90 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. time. Many of those compositions I have read and shall read again with much pleasure, and shall make them as generally useful as I can among the Physicians in my Neighbourhood : but as I feel as few as I ever did in my life of those Aches and pains which you say await me and I know must come, I will not anticipate them. Sufficient for the day is its own evil. I never had the good fortune to meet General Miranda nor the pleasure to see him. I have heard much of his abilities and the politeness of his manners. But who is he ? What is he ? Whence does he come and whither does he go ? What are his motives, views and objects ? Secrecy, Mystery and intrigue, have a mighty effect on the World. You and I have seen it in Franklin, Wash- ington, Burr, Hamilton and Jefferson and many others. The Judgment of Mankind in general is like that of father Bonhours, who says " P'or myself, I regard secret persons, like the great rivers, whose bottoms we can- not see and which make no noise; or like those vast forests, whose silence fills the soul, with I know not what religious horror. I have for them the same ad- miration, as men had for the oracles, which never suf- fered themselves to be understood, till after the event of things ; or for the Providence of God, whose conduct is impenetrable to the human mind." Without criticising the taste, the piety or decency of comparing a man, successively to a river, a forest, an oracle, and providence, I shall only say that I never had this silence, nor aimed at having it; nor the admiration of it, of Bonhours; whose images however, scarcely express too boldly, the stupid wonder of the world, which is excited by it. This quality when well managed, I have known to be worth more to a Man than ten OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 91 Talents. It must nevertheless be acknowledged, there are times and cases, in which our Duty to God our Neighbour and ourselves, renders a total silence and an impenetrable secrecy indispensable. I have practised it myself when I thought it necessary, with as much vigour as any of them: but never for the purpose of giving myself an air of Grandeur, Depth or impor- tance. In all my communications to Congress and to my friends while I was a public minister abroad, I held the same language with Miranda, that we had nothing to hope from England or France, but what we should be obliged to repay with Interest. And that has been my invariable opinion from that time to this. I am ashamed indeed that so many of my Countrymen entertain hopes of great Things from both ; some from one and some from the other. I see not however with Miranda, that we have anything to fear from either. If our Negotia- tions are conducted with skill we need not be afraid. But from the Blunders of such Men as C. Pinkney, Monroe, Armstrong and Livingston, we can never know what is to come. Whether Mr. Pitt has any thoughts of destroying the remains of Liberty in England or not, I neither know nor much Care. Believing him as I do an able Minis- ter, I think he has too much sense ; but if he has not, it will make little difference to me or my Country, or Mankind. If he tries the experiment he will only ruin himself, and that is nothing to me. I think with Miranda, we shall have no war. No thanks however to the wisdom of our negotiations ; and I fear we shall be weakly obliged to pay for peace by the sacrifice of our commerce and by purchasing at a 92 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. great expense more causes of European Jealousy and more objects of Contention. Miranda's anecdote of Hamiltons scorn of Washing- ton is no surprise to me. Those who trumpetted Wash- ington in the highest strains at some times, spoke of him at others, in the strongest terms of contempt. Indeed I know of no Character to which so much hypocritical adulation has been offered. Hamilton, Pickering and many others, have been known to in- dulge themselves in very contemptuous expressions, but very unjustly and ungratefully. His Character as an able General, a wise Statesman and an honest Man, is justly established, with the present age and Posterity, beyond the reach of those railers and all who resemble them in self Conceit and ill nature. The History with which Hamilton threatened to destroy the Character of Washington, might diminish some of that enthusiastic exaggeration which represents him as the greatest General, the greatest Legislator, and the most perfect Character that ever lived ; but could never take from him the praise of Talents and Virtues labours and ex- ertions, which will command the esteem of the wisest and best Men in all ages. Although I read with tranquility and suffered to pass without animadversion in silent contempt, the base insinuations of vanity, and a hundred lies besides published in a Pamphlet against me, by an insolent coxcomb, who rarely dined in good Company where there was good wine, without getting silly, and vapour- ing about his administration, like a young Girl about her brilliants and trinketts; yet I loose all Patience, when I think of a bastard brat of a Scotch Pedler, daring to threaten to undeceive the world in their Judgment of OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 93 Washington, by writing a history of his battles and Campaigns. This Creature was in a delirium of ambi- tion ; he had been blown up with Vanity by the Tories, had fixed his eye on the highest station in America, and he hated every Man young or old who stood in his way, or could in any manner eclipse his laurells or rival his Pretensions, Col. Smith, Coll. Burr, Mr. Jay, Mr. Madi- son, Adams, Mr. Jefferson and Washington were but a part of those who were envied by him. From some windows in my House I see, the Capitol in Boston ; not only its dome and steeple, but the whole body of the Building: from other windows the view is obstructed by Trees, Houses &c., in other Mens lands, and there might be Pallaces and Temples. If I should swear I would cutt down all those Trees and burn all those sacred Temples and gorgeous Palaces, in order to clear my view and actually attempt and accomplish some of this destruction, I should be an emblem of the Bairn of Nevis. The sudden rise of the public securities, after the es- tablishment of the funding system, was no misfortune to the Public, but an advantage. The necessity of that system arose from the inconsistency of the People, in contracting debts and then refusing to pay them. The States would not adopt the five per Cent impost, and there were no means of paying the interest or principal of the public debt. That obstinate and willfull igno- rance of the nature of money, and of public Credit, which suffered the depreciation of the Continental Currency, effected a similar depreciation of the public certificates, and is now inforcing a depreciation of the only Currency we have, the bank bills ; and when or how this element of confusion will stop, I know not. 94 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Experience is lost upon our People. The Injustice oc- casioned by these Bills, will be as great, for any thing I can see, as that which arose from Paper Money, or the public Certificates. The Government of the Nation and of individual States will have their hands full of business to prevent greater evils from this, than arose from the other two causes. I have no objection to the respects shewn to Moreau and am pleased with those to Eaton and Decatur: but I mourn over the neglect of Talbot, Truxton, Little and Decatur the Father. Our Statesmen committed a most egregious, pernicious, and indeed malicious Error, in discouraging those officers, and mismanaging the ships. But democratical ambition and vengeance, will never act with more Wisdom, Morality or Decency. I feel more interested in our public affairs now, than I have for some years, because we seem to be in some immediate danger. The Public ought to know more than they do about our negotiations with England, Spain and France too. If our disputes and difficulties have been brought upon us, by the imprudence of our Ambassadors, or by the Impolicy of our Government in contending for Points, which can never be obtained and if obtained would be of no value, we ought to know it. But if our Government and Ministers are not in fault and our Commerce is like to be destroyed, as much as I love Neutrality, I would let our Merchants make reprisals. You will be surprised to find this much ado about nothing closed by a question in natural History. Has the Plant that is called by the name of Soda, by some writers, Kali, by others and Barilla, perhaps by more, ever been discovered in this Country ? It is named OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 95 Glasswort too, I believe by the English. I am dear Sir as usual, with usual regards from my Family to yours, your Friend and humble servant J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy March 26. 1806. Dear Sir,-Your favour of the fifteenth is received. In a cornfield, which I had manured with seaweed and Marsh mud, in a compost with other materials, I found, last fall, two plants of an uncommon appearance which I suspected to be the Kali: because they resembled the descriptions of it which I had read in the Dictionary of natural History and in the (Economical Dictionary, both of which quote Monsieur De Reaumur and many other original authorities. I had before seen several of these plants, springing up on banks of mud, which I had thrown upon the sides of the Ditches which I had made in my salt Marshes. It was late in the fall when I per- ceived them. The pods and seeds were dead and dried, so that I could not be certain that it was the Plant out of which the " Pierre de Soude" is made in Alicante and formerly in Marseilles and many other parts of France. It is worth while for our Phylosophers to examine this subject for the Commodity is of great value. Thanks for the Pathetic Extract from your closing Lecture. It must have made a deep impression on the Minds of the young Gentlemen your Pupills and Hearers. I sincerely rejoice in the promotion of your Brother, whose Talents, Virtues and Experience, have well mer- 96 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ited this distinction. But I cannot help laughing at McKean, entre nous, sub rosa, Tace. Taisez vous. I cannot convey the injunction in too many languages. I suppose McKean promoted Jacob because he is a Brother Monarchist. You and I remember the time when we heard your Brother say that in his opinion, " the Executive and Senate ought to be hereditary." You replied that you was "of a different opinion." I have heard McKean say the same thing in the same words, and I know other substantial witnesses who can depose that he freely expressed this opinion in many Companies for several years. I never thought McKean or your Brother less friendly to our Constitution for these speculative opinions. I never in my Life went to such a length as this; although wrap'd into future Times, when numbers, Wealth Luxury and Corruption shall have rendered this constitution insufficient to re- strain the Passions of Men, I may have thought that the only way to preserve Liberty from an Emperor, would be to make the Executive and Senate more permanent than they are now. Mr. Madison, you say in one of your Letters, acquitted me of any intention to change the Constitution of the Union or the individual States, and I solemnly assure you, I never had a wish in my heart or a thought in my head of attempting any alter- ation in this respect. Now let me ask you, do you not think I have a right to boast of my Patience, Phylosophy and discretion in submitting to McKeans representa- tions of me as a Monarchist, without retaliating upon him what I had heard him say and could prove he had said to many others. But McKean is not alone. Many others of the present ruling party are in the same pre- dicament. One hioji in Power, office and confidence OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 97 under the present administration, has said, not long before Mr. Jeffersons election that " there ought to be a Monarchy in this Country, under one of the Princes of England, for our King." This Idea was ever abhorrent to my inmost soul: yet I have never made a noise about it. Others high in authority, Confidence and reputation with the present dominant sect, have often said that no Government was worth a Curse, but that of King, Lords and Commons. Yet I have never trumpetted these speeches. These last expressions are more susceptible of different interpretations. Some whom I have heard use them, did not I know mean the Titles of King, or Lords, nor the quality of hereditary Kings or Lords, they meant no more than that they wished the Presi- dent, Senate and House of Representatives might be as independent branches of the Legislature as Kings Lords and Commons were in England, and as capable of ballancing each other. This they might be under the present Constitution if the people would allow them to be so : and the People would not only allow it, but desire it, if they were not deceived by the Intrigues of Dema- gogues and the profligacy of foreign Renegado Printers. You ask me a Question of great Importance, far beyond my Capacity to answer. " What is to be the Fate of Europe and of the Globe?" In Europe, ac- cording to present appearances " The Dyvels own Gov- ernment" is to prevail till it changes all the Dynasties of Kings and Nobles and levels all Distinctions and Priviledges under Emperors and their Minions. Com- merce, Manufactures and Science will languish under this gloomy Tyranny and Europe grow up into a forest inhabited only by Wild Beasts and a few Hunters who shall have fled into the wilderness from the Tyranny of 98 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Pen and Ink. You ask also what will be the Fate of our Country ? If the Phylosophers had not undermined the Christian religion, and the morals of the People, as much in America as they have in Europe, I should think Civilization would take its flight over the Atlantic. But as it is, I see nothing but we must or rather that we shall follow the fate of Europe. Voltaire, Buffen, D'Alembert, Dideret, Raynal, Rousseau, Dr. Priestly, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Helvetius and that miserable Dupe of his own vanity and their Intrigues, Frederick the great have made all Europe so discontented with them- selves, their Government and Religion that, to abolish the Title of King they are compelled to assume that of Emperor, and instead of the Whips of Monarchy, they are obliged to have recourse to the Scorpions of Des- potism. Democracy is always so horribly bloody that it is al- ways short lived and its atrocious cruelties, are never checked, but by extinguishing all popular elections to the great offices of State. I hope Americans will re- flect upon these things before it is too late. But a War will bring them to a severe Tryal. To me, who must soon travel into another Country to return no more, these things are of little Consequence : yet I cannot throw off the habits of this world so entirely as to be indifferent to the future state of my Friends, Country and Species. I love them all and would cheerfully sacrifice myself to promote their happiness : but nothing I have done or can do, availeth any thing. I can do nothing more than pray for their prosperity, and weep over their follies and Misfortunes. I am not however very prodigal of my tears for I am determined to make the best of every thing as long as I can. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 99 You, my Friend I see are a greater proficient in this Phylosophy than I am. You are grown as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove. I cannot force a word of Politicks out of you ; for this discretion I blame you not. Yet I will not adopt it yet. Johnson said when he satt upon his Throne in a Tavern, there he dogma- tized and was contradicted, and in this he found delight. My Throne is not in a Tavern but at my Fireside : there I dogmatize, there I laugh and there the Newspapers sometimes make me scold : and in dogmatizing, laughing and scolding I find delight, and why should not I enjoy it, since no one is the worse for it and I am the better. Regards from and to the family as usual from your friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy June 22d. 1806. Dear Sir,-Your Letter of the tenth, like all others from your pen, notwithstanding all your apologies, was a cordial to my spirits. I must confess to you that the Data, upon which we reason from the Prophecies concerning the future amel- ioration of the condition of Mankind, are too obscure and uncertain, to authorize us to build any systems upon them for the conduct of Nations. It is well to understand as much of them as we can : but the Rulers of Men would presume too much, if they neglected History, Experience and Philosophy and depended upon the Theological Interpretations of mysterious Predictions, which were not intended to be perfectly understood untill the time of their accomplishment. 100 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Our Friend Priestley believed, that France would es- tablish a free Government because the King of France was the first of the ten Horns, which were to fall off. Whiston was disappointed, several times : and my friend Dr. West of New Bedford fully believed that Bonaparte had totally destroyed the Man of Sin, full seven years ago. I rather approve than censure your reserve upon political subjects. It would certainly have been better for me, and probably for the publick if I had been wise enough to have adopted some of it. I have read, the last Winter and Spring the debates in Congress with more regularity and attention than I ever did before, and have derived more information of the Motives, Principles, and designs of the present Majorities, than I could ever before penetrate. I must give to Mr. Mason, Mr. Early and many others the praise of system and consistency. Their fundamental Principle is, that the moment you raise a public force, you give up your Liberties; and therefore there must be neither an army, Navy, Fortifications, a select Militia or even a revenue because if any of these exist, they must be entrusted to the Executive Authority, establish a system of Patronage, and overthrow the constitution. All this is very fine! But it will fly like chaff before the Wind, as soon as any Nation by a series of Insults and depredations, shall excite a serious national resentment. Mr. Randolph is an unusual Phenomenon. I have read all his speeches. He has formed himself on the great Models of Wilkes, Junius, Cobbet, Tom Paine and Calender. He has introduced their modes into the Legislature, where I should have expected it would have produced OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 101 from the Duelling Moralists and Christians, as many bullet holes through his body as there are cells in a honey comb. But I hope the gallant heroes of the southern and middle states are growing cooler and more rational. He has Wit, Fancy and memory in abundance. If his constitution endures till he has sown all his wild oats, and he begins to reason and exercise his Judgment, I am not without hopes he will come to something solid and usefull. Taleyrands observation on the Character of Ameri- cans is somewhat enigmatical, or rather equivocal. If he meant that Americans are not attached to their Houses Lands and Memorials of their Ancestors like the European Nobility and Landholders in general, this is true and not very disgracefull. But if he meant that Americans would universally sell their consciences and their honor, he lied. Although to my grief and indignation I believe he found some, whom he bought or hired and keeps still in his pay. That machivelian Jesuit, and Pharisee as well as the French in General know us better than we know them. They are too well acquainted with our infirmities, follies and vices, for us to be upon equal terms with them, as long as we believe that the way to obtain justice of them is to humour them and give way to them. They will only do right when you withstand them to their faces when they are in the wrong. Your kind sympathy in my domestic afflictions affects me tenderly. New York has been the Box of Pandora to me and my family. I see and feel and I hope think and reflect as I ought, but however pungent my grief or mortifying my disappointment, I do not complain. It is enough for me to suffer in my own Breast, and never 8 102 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. torment others with endeavours to excite their com- passion. I have no reason to hope that my name will contribute in the smallest degree to save the life of my Grandson. It is not possible for a Man to disapprove more decidedly than I have done the Conduct of Miranda and Col. Smith from the moment I heard of it, which was not till several weeks after the expedition had sailed. I impute no blame to Mr. Jefferson for dis- missing Smith from his office. The absurdity of his conduct, throughout the whole Business cannot be too severly reprobated. I never saw Miranda. He came to London when I was there and was very intimate with Smith, but never visited me. I have ever disliked the Character of the Man, though I had always heard him spoken of in terms of admiration. If our Government knew or suspected the design I wonder she did not prevent it. Have they considered the Consequences to this Country, to France, Spain, Portugal or England of the Independence of South America. Is it an event to be desired by the U. S. ? I think not. It would increase and multiply the distrac- tions of the World already too numerous. The Ele- ments of Confusion are already too many to be soon exhausted. To augment them, with this additional source of them would be to make them interminable. If the headlong dashing fellow Miranda could take a Province, he could not hold it, without England, and England unless she is crazy will neither promote nor consent to the Independence of that country. It would be the means of their loosing their possessions in the West Indies and the East Indies too, and breaking up their Empire. The Consequences of our Independence have been so much more sudden, extensive and aston- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 103 ishing than we expected sanguine as we were, that I am by no means disposed to assist in hastening on events, which we know must come of themselves in the natural course of things. The Independence of South America must occasion convulsions and revulsions over the whole Globe, and ultimately pitt Europe against America. It is an abyss into which I dare not look. We stand well: let us stand still. Whatever Burr might say of Miranda, he is himself much such another. Both qualified to flatter Col. Smith and lead him into scrapes. Both might be employed in subordinate stations but neither fit for the first re- sponsible situations. From an expression in your Letter, it occurred to me that your son, my surgeon and Lieutenant might possi- bly be with my Grandson. I hope not. Permit me to present my congratulations on the Compliments you have received from Berlin. Your Countrymen will esteem it a great honor: for although they pretend to despize and hate Kings, yet they still gape at the honours they confer with as silly an admira- tion as Europeans do. Our Massachusetts resembles at present the Monster of Horace, a handsome human head, upon the Body of a Squallid Fish. Sic volo, sic jubeo, says the People ; Stet pro ratione voluntas. Absolute Power in a Majority, is as drunk as it is in one. Family Salutes Family, and blessings on it are supplicated by Dr. Rush. J. Adams. 104 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy July 23. 1806. Dear Sir,-I have two of your Letters to acknowl- edge at once. The Treatise on the spleen I have read, and been entertained by it, perhaps more than I should have been if I had been better acquainted with the sciences on which it depends. Your medical specula- tions are to me as entertaining as Romances of which I am a great lover; but they are as much in request among the learned of your Profession : so that I con- clude they have more solid merit than I can pretend to be capable of estimating. One of my Family Physi- cians has had your medical works in Boston, ever since their arrival and I have not yet been able to get a sight of them. I have sent him this new work and I know not but you may be flattered or vexed with reviews of both. The appointment of my son to a professorship founded by one of his relations I hope will do no harm to the public, although I dread the consequences of it to his health. Aristotle, Dionissius, Hallicarnassensis, Longinus Quintilian, Demosthenes and Cicero, with twenty others are not easily read and studied by a Man of the World and a Senator of the United States. And after all cui bono ? Oratory in this age ? Secrecy ! Cunning! Silence ! voila les grands sciences des temps moderns. Washington ! Franklin ! Jefferson ! Eternal Silence ! impenetrable Secrecy! deep cunning! these are the talents and virtues, which are tryumphant in these days. And in ancient days was it much other- wise ? Demosthenes and Cicero, the two consummate Masters died Martyrs to their excellence. When I group Washington with Franklin and Jefferson I mean OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 105 only in the article of silence. He had integrity and public Virtue, as I seriously believe. Thus much for your Letter of the 26 of June,-that of the eleventh of July might be answered by a volume. Is there in the world at this day a Thuanus ? There may be, but I fear there is not. An historian who could look through Europe and America and detail the events and Characters of the World from 1760 to 1806, and then solemnly and truly say at the end of his work, "Pro Veritate Historiarum mearum, Deum ipsum obtestor," would, as slightly as you and I think of His- tory in general, be a great blessing to Mankind. To such an Historian even the secret Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, and Cumberlands memoirs of his own Life might be of some use. I have the most curiosity to see the last. I was somewhat acquainted with Cum- berland. He had a morbid Irritability in him, which rendered him disagreeable to the Men of Letters in general; but his writings in Poetry are worthy of the study of Posterity and his prose style, is the most classi- cal English of the last forty years. You are not the only one of my friends, who has very seriously urged me to write an History of my own times, or of my own Life. I have very serious Ideas of the Duties of an Historian. I think that no History should be written but under the oath of Thuanus. I know not whether his oath ought not to be extended farther and administered and taken in the words of the oath of a witness in our Courts of Justice to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the Truth. Of all Men, who have acted a part in the great affairs of the World I am afraid I have been the most careless and negligent, in preserving Papers. I must write too 106 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. many things from memory, and oftentimes facts to which there is no other Witness left alive. The task, besides is so extensive, that I have not time left to ex- ecute it. To rummage Trunks, Letter books, bits of Journals and great heaps and bundles of old papers, is a dreadful bondage to old age, and an extinguisher of old eyes. The few letters of which I made Copies are preserved, but so many accidents happen to such things, that they may be lost; and indeed they were all written in so much haste, and so carelessly put upon paper that they are not fit for the public eye. What must I say of my own Vanity and Levity ? Crimes I thank God I have none to record. Follies, indiscretions and trifles enough and too many. What of the Jealousy and Envy of those who have been my most intimate friends, Colleagues and Coadjutors ? What of the malice and vengeance of unprovoked enemies? It would be an easier employment to publish a Collection of my politi- cal works; but I cannot afford to print them at my own expense and I dont believe a subscription could be ob- tained for the purpose, and no Bookseller would under- take it at his own expense and risque. These would be a tollerable account of my own life, and contain some materials for public History. Cobbet once said to Sam Malcolm, " There never was a greater difference between two Men, than between Washington and Adams, in one point, the desire of fame. Washington had an enormous, an insatiable thirst for it; but Adams was as excessively careless of it." He did not I presume intend it, and I certainly did not consider it, as a compliment. I am very sensible that I have been negligent of it, to a fault, and a very great fault too. There have been very many times in OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 107 my life, when I have been so agitated in my own mind as to have no consideration at all of the light in which my words, actions and even writings, would be con- sidered by others. Indeed I never could bring myself seriously to consider that I was a great Man, or of much importance or consideration in the world. The few traces that remain of me, must I believe go down to posterity in much confusion and distraction, as my life has been passed. Enough surely of Egotism ! I rejoice that your son is not with Miranda. The command of a Gun boat is a better employment. He must be a navy officer. He is an enthusiast for it, and I wish he may be an Admiral. I drank a Glass of Wine with him on the 4th. of July though I did not see him. My Grandson, has been an enthusiast for a military life by land or sea from his Infancy, his Great Grand- father Stevens, was an officer in the army and died in the service, and such a circumstance commonly gives a military cast to a family for several generations. I wish however that he was a common sailer, under your son in his gun boat rather than what he is, where he is. I have no idea that the Spaniards in South America, are capable of a free Government, and a military des- potism under Miranda, or even a simple monarchy would not be better that I can see, than their present subjec- tion to the Court of Spain. In short nothing seems to me to have been considered by Miranda in this expedition. He has consulted nothing but his own passions, his re- sentment and his ambition, or perhaps his necessities and desperation. Those who have been concerned with him, must I think have been as blind and thoughtless as himself. As I knew nothing of the expedition until after it had sailed I could do nothing to prevent it, and 108 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. now I can do nothing to retrieve it. Providence will decide its fate and I must submit. Your reflections on human affairs, and particularly on the progress of the public opinion in the case of our Revolution, are as profound as they are just and true. I have sometimes thought that the public opinion is never right concerning present measures or future events. The secret of affairs is never known to the pub- lic, till after the event and often not then. Even in the freest and most popular government, events are pre- paring by causes that are at work in secret, known only to a very few, partially communicated in confidence to a few others, but never fully made known to the people till long after all is past. And very often the real springs, motives and causes remain secrets in the breasts of a few and perhaps of one, and perish with their keepers like the secret of Junius's Letters. Your Divine was more satirical than theological. God throws Empires and Kingdoms, as he does Rains, Plagues, Earthquakes, Storms, Sunshine, Good and Evil, in a manner that we cannot comprehend, and as far as we can see very often without that regard to Morality which we think should govern the world. But al- though we see not as he sees, we have reasons enough to establish a rational belief, that all these things are disposed by unerring Wisdom, Justice and Benevolence. Nor do I see any reason to distinguish Emperors, Kings, Consuls or Presidents from the rest of Mankind. They are as good, in general, in proportion to their numbers as their subjects, and if worthless Men are sometimes at the head of affairs, it is, I believe because worthless Men are at the tail and in the middle. The most ex- alted Talents too are thrown upon the most worthless OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 109 and wicked of Men as exorbitant Wealth was given to Chartres, as it were to show in how small estimation are Talents, Wealth and Power, in the sight of heaven, according to Arbuthnots Epitaph. These things would go far towards seducing Men to the opinions of Jaques le Fataliste, if they did not take into their consideration a future state of retribution. I should never be weary of writing to you, but I am sure you must be weary of reading as much as this from your assured Friend J. Adams. I send you my sons oration. Dr. Rush. Quincy September 19. 1806. Dear Sir,-Thanks for your favour of Aug. 22d. My Experience is perfectly conformable to yours, re- specting silent Men. Silence is most commonly design and Intrigue. In Franklin it was very remarkable, because he was naturally a great Talker. I have con- versed with him frequently in his garrulous humours, and his Grandson, or son, Billy has told me that he never knew a greater Talker than his Grandfather. But at other times he was as silent as midnight, and often upon occasions and in relation to subjects on which it was his duty to speak. Arthur Lee told me he had known him sit whole evenings in London, without uttering a word in company with the first Men for Sci- ence and Literature, when the conversation has turned upon subjects on which he was supposed to be well informed. Whether the age of oratory will ever return I know 110 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. not. At present it seems to be of little use, for every Man in our public assemblies will vote with his party, and his nose is counted before he takes his seat. Dia- lecticks are as unavailing as Rhetorick. The Man is determined and his vote is decided let Reason, Justice, Policy or humanity say what they will. The Theory however ouofht not to be neglected in our seats of Education. Better times may arrive. My Son has delivered six lectures to his pupils besides his inaugural address, and I suppose he will deliver six or eight more, before he returns to Washington. At the expense of immense labour he has opened a field before the stu- dents and furnished the means of investigation, which will enable them to pursue the subject to any length they please and make themselves masters of all that is now to be known. He has and will lay open to them all the richest treasures of Greek and Roman, English and French Elegance, Sublimity and Pathos, and per- haps something from Italy and Germany. His Health I fear will sink under his efforts. Dr. Priestleys Life I should be very glad to see, and hope that some of them will be sent to Boston for sale. He was a man of very extraordinary Talents and in- credible application. If he had written but a tenth part of his works he would have left a ten times greater reputation. If he had written nothing but his Chem- istry he would have been thought a prodigy. Suppose a grave controversy should arise among the friends of Dr. Rush, Dr. Franklin and Dr. Rittenhouse, which of the three had the best pretensions to the hon- our of the discovery of the demonstration that the 3 angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles! You will say this would be ridiculous, for the discovery OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 111 was made some thousands of years before either of those Philosophers was born. Very true, and equally absurd is the dispute, whether the original Idea of the perfectibility of Man, is to be ascribed to Dr. Price, Dr. Priestley or Mr. Condorcet. It is more ancient than either by thousands of years. Plato had it when he talked of imitating God. The Stoicks had it when they described their wise Man. Epicurus had it when he described his man of pleasure. The human mind is made capable of conceiving something more perfect than any created being that exists. Artists, Painters, Poets, Statuaries, Musicians, are all capable of con- ceiving and imagining something in their Arts, supe- riour to any thing they have done, or has been done by others. It is a precept in all these arts as well as in Ethicks to aim at greater perfection than has ever been attained and perhaps than ever can be attained. The Christian Religion has adopted and sanctioned this Theory in stronger terms than any modern Philoso- phers have employed. Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect. The eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and all benevolent Model of perfection is placed before Men, for their perpetual Meditation and imitation. By this however it is not intended, that every Man can ever become eternal, almighty and allwise. It is an Idea of the Christian religion, and ever has been of all Believers in the immortality of the soul that the intellectual part of Man is capable of pro- gressive improvement for ever. Where then is the sense of calling the perfectibility of Man an original Idea or a modern discovery. What is their meaning under these words, perfectibility of Man ? Do they mean that the human Body can be made immortal on 112 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Earth and incorruptible, free from Pains and diseases, by human reason ? Do they mean that the strength of the human body can be increased so as to remove mountains, to shake the earth and stop the planets? If they mean any such things as these, the discovery has not yet been made and never will be. Do they mean that the human Intellect can be enlarged here in the Body to comprehend the whole Constitution and course of Nature ? This is not less incredible, and extravagant than the rest. In short I consider, the Perfectibility of Man as used by modern Philosophers, to be mere words without a meaning, that is mere nonsense. The continual amelioration of the condition of Man in this World, moral, Physical, political, civil and CEco- nomical, is a very intelligible Idea and no doubt is to be desired, meditated, laboured, and promoted by all Men, and those who do most for it ought to be most esteemed. But in this there is nothing but Simplicity and common sense. Nothing to excite the gaping wonder of a vicious mob, nor the ignorant admiration of superficial Philosophers. As a friend to Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley I will never require this honour for them, from any body. Condorcet is Wellcome to as much of this honour as he pleases, and to all the mischievous nonsense, impudence and Cruelty that he instigated and promoted. Poor Price was once left gravely to publish in print that the progress of Knowledge might discover a Method of rendering Men immortal on Earth. Kant, the German Philosopher, has advanced, as I understand, though I never could find any intelligible account of his reveries, somethinof like this notion of 7 o OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 113 perfectibility, and I believe before Priestley, Price or Condorcet. His System is Antagonism. And what is Antagonism ? Why, all Government is to be abolished, as well as all Religion, and Men are to be left to their natural Jealousies and Competitions, till they beat and bruise and murder one another, sufficiently to convince and compell each other to practice perfect Justice, Hu- manity and Benevolence. Are such Dreams, Visions and ravings any honor, to any body ? Call them Philosophy if you will but they are bedlamism. We in this commonwealth, are making great ad- vances, if not in the Perfectibility of human nature, yet in the great Arts of lying and libelling and the other Arts which grow out of them, such as wielding the Cud- gel and the Pistol. When Democratical Governments begin to produce such fruits as these in such great abundance what are we to expect? A conviction in favour of mixed Governments ? or a Caesar, or Bona- parte ? To be sure it is safest in such cases to be on the side of the Populace, because Men are safer from Proscriptions and denunciations, Confiscations and Guillotines. There is little for me to lose in the worst times or Cases that can happen. My property is small and the remainder of my Life is short. But Oh my Country, how I mourn over thy follies and vices, thine ignorance and imbecillity, thy contempt of Wisdom and Virtue and overweening admiration of fools and knaves ! the never failing effects of democracy. I once thought our Constitution was quasi a mixed Government, but they have now made it, to all intents and purposes, in virtue, spirit and effect, a democracy. We are left without resource but in our prayers and tears, and have nothing that we can do or say but the 114 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Lord have mercy upon us, and as I used to say in the time of the Revolution, in moments of critical distress, with too much levity I fear, and too little serious con- sideration, " Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." I really believe I now say it with more serious impressions. If Mr. Jefferson was a Warriour, I should suspect that his administration was contrived to give employ- ment to the People and turn their minds from faction and Politicks by involving himself and them in a War, with Spain, France or England or with all three. The Romans were obliged to practice this policy for seven hundred years. But Jefferson is not a Roman. If Peace should be concluded between France and Eng- land, we shall be in a perilous situation. I sometimes think that Bonaparte is making Peace with Mr. Fox, for the sake of Chastizing Jefferson and his Coadjutors, whom by this time he must despize and hate. I am as usual, your obliged friend J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Novr. 11. 1806. Dear Sir,-When I recd. your favour of the 24 Oct. I soberly expected a grave dissertation on the Perfecti- bility of Man. Although I thank you for the political information you give me, which is amusing, and al- though I doubt not your Physiological researches will result in something usefull to the publick, yet, as I have ever considered all Arts, Sciences and Litterature as of small importance in comparison of Morals, I was dis- appointed in finding nothing upon the great subject of OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 115 the Perfectibility of human Nature, which I suppose is to be ranged under the head of Ethicks. I really wish you would tell me what you understand by this mighty discovery of Price, Priestley or Condorcet. Perfectibil- ity, I should suppose to mean, capability of Perfection ; or susceptibility of perfection. But what is Perfection ? It is self evident, there cannot be more than one per- fect Being in the Universe. If this Truth is not per- ceived by one act of intuition, the progress of reason is so obvious and so decisive, in the demonstration of it, that it may well pass for self evident. Divine Power is no doubt essential to Perfection. There can be but one being in the Universe possessed of al- mighty Power; because if there were two, each would be able to controul the other, and indeed to annihilate him : and this Hypothesis would be equivalent to as- serting that there was no Power at all in the Universe. The Absurdity is multiplied in proportion as you sup- pose more than two almighty Beings. These great Phylosophers then cannot be supposed to mean that every Man, Woman and Child is capable of becoming a Supream and all perfect Being. What then do they mean ? Do they mean perfection in this world or in a future state ? Do they mean perfection of Mind or Body or both? Condorcet and Priestley believed in no soul, spirit or Mind distinct from the Body: they must therefore have meant that the Perfectibility re- sided in the Body or matter. Do they mean that in a future state, the Body may be purified from all causes of disease and death, liberated from all Pain, Grief, Sorrow and Uneasiness and that forever. If this is all their meaning, it is no more than the Christian Doctrine, and therefore certainly no discovery of Price, 116 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Priestley or Condorcet. The greatest part however of the modern Philosophers, who have written and dis- coursed upon this Mysterious doctrine, have confined their Ideas to this terrestrial existence and have be- lieved in no other. If they mean that Man is capable, by abstract meditation, and habitual practice of acquir- ing that self possession and command which can bear pain and think it no more intollerable than Pleasure, the Felicis Animi immota tranquilitis, this is no more than the Perfectibility of the Stoick Philosophy. If they mean that by banishing all Ideas of God or Gods, of future Rewards and Punishments and of moral Government or Providence in the Universe, every Man may get into an habit of taking pleasure in every Thing, this is no more than the Perfectibility of Epicu- rus or Lucretius, and certainly no discovery of Price, Priestley or Condorcet. What then do they mean ? Do they mean that chemical Processes may be invented by which the human Body may be rendered immortal and incapable of Disease upon Earth. This, in a fit of enthusiasm, resembling Instances which I shall enu- merate before I finish this Letter, Dr. Price advanced in a printed note to one of his publications. Surely the good Doctor had forgot his Bible which pronounces an irrevocable Decree of Death on every human Being, allmost in every page of it. Price and Priestley were honest enthusiasts carried away by the popular con- tagion of the times, for these moral and political His- tericks are at least as infectious as the small Pox or yellow fever; but the greater part of Politicians and Phylosophers who prated about the Perfectibility of Man, mean nothing but to seize, occupy and confound the attention of the Public, while they were amusing and OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 117 cheating the Populace with principles of equality and Levellism, which they knew impracticable and never intended to promote any further than for the purposes of present plunder. It is really humiliating to the pride of human nature that so frivolous a piece of Pedantry should have made so much noise in the world and been productive of such melancholly and tragical effects ; especially as another discovery had been made long before, of much more importance, by which this and most of the other Theories and events of the last twenty years might have been more justly estimated. The discovery I mean is this. If we take a survey of the greatest actions which have been performed in the world, which are the establishment of new empires by Conquest and the advance and progress of new schemes in Phylosophy, we shall find the authors of them all to have been persons whose Brains had been shaken out of their natural position. For the upper re- gion of Man is furnished like the middle region of the air. Mists arise from the earth, steams from dunghills, exhalations from the sea and smoke from fire; yet all Clouds are the same in composition as well as conse- quences ; and fumes issuing from a Jakes will furnish as comely and usefull a vapour as incense from an altar. As the face of nature never produces rain, but when it is overcast and disturbed ; so human understanding seated in the brain, must be troubled and overspread by vapours, ascending from the lower faculties to water the invention and render it fruitful. Two instances may be produced to prove and explain this Theory. The first is that of Henry the fourth of France, whose whole project of universal empire, as well as that of subduing- the Turk and recovering- Palestine, arose o o 7 118 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. from an absent female, whose eyes had raised a protu- berancy, and before emission she was sent into an ennemy's country. The collected part of the semen, raised and inflamed became a Lust converted to choler turned head upon the spinal duct, and ascended to the brain. The very same principle that influences a bully to break the windows of a whore that has jilted him, naturally stirrs up a great Prince to raise mighty armies, and dream of nothing but sieges, battles and victories. In this place I cannot avoid introducing a reflection by way of digression. What a pity it is that our Congress had not known this discovery, and that Alexander Hamiltons projects of raising an army of fifty thou- sand Men, ten thousand of them to be Cavalry and his projects of sedition Laws and Alien Laws and of new taxes to support his army, all arose from a superabun- dance of secretions which he could not find whores enough to draw off! and that the same vapours pro- duced his Lyes and Slanders by which he totally de- stroyed his party forever and finally lost his Life in the field of Honor. But to return from this digression. The second instance is that of Louis 14th. who for the space of above thirty years amused himself to take and lose Towns ; beat armies and be beaten ; drive Princes out of their dominions ; fright children from their bread and butter; burn, lay waste, plunder, dra- goon, massacre subject and stranger, friend and foe, male and female: it is recorded that the Phylosophers of each Country, were in grave dispute upon causes natural, moral and political, to find out where they should assign an original solution of this Phenomenon. At last the vapour or spirit, which animated the Hero's brain being in perpetual circulation, seized upon that OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 119 region of the human Body so renowned for furnishing the Zibeta occidentalis, and gathering there into a tumour, left the rest of the world for that time in Peace. Of such mighty consequences it is, where these exhalations fix; and of so little whence they proceed. The same spirits which in their superiour progress, would conquer a Kingdom, descending upon the Anus conclude in a fistula. And here again I feel an irresistable inclination, to introduce a Reflection by way of digression. How very desirable it is that all the vapours in the heads of our modern Philosophers, should take a turn down- wards, and relieve the world from their silly and mis- chievous speculations. And above all how devoutly it is to be wished that Napoleon may have a Fistula large enough to carry off all his vapours and set the world at peace. The Phylosopher from whom I have borrowed this ingenious Theory is Dr. Swift, who in that great Phyl- osophical effort the Tale of a Tub, has in the ninth section given the world a profound discourse on the original use and improvement of madness in a Com- monwealth, which whole section I earnestly recommend to your serious meditation, as one of the profoundest and most important systems of Phylosophy which the last Century produced, and by which I have been con- vinced that all modern Ideas of the Perfectibility of Man will be drawn from the Brains of every Philoso- pher upon earth, as soon as a fistula shall be formed in its proper place, and either break or be skillfully cutt, so as to occasion a plentiful discharge. So no more at present from your loving friend J. Adams. 120 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. P.S.-What are your reflections on the Conquest of Buenos Aires? Is it not a great event? Will the English stop short of Chili and Peru ? What effect will it have on France and Spain ? What effects from it have we reason to apprehend ? Will it not protect Portugal from France and Spain ; because the Brasils will certainly be in the Power of the English as soon as Portugal shall become their Ennemy ? Quincy December 22. 1806. Dear Sir,-I thank you for yours of the twenty fifth of November. I was in hopes you would have ex- plained to me the system of human Perfectibility which is claimed as the Invention of Dr. Priestley. The system of the French (Economists I took some pains, more than five and twenty years ago, to understand ; but could not find one Gentleman among the Statesmen, Phylosophers and Men of Letters, who pretended to understand it. I procured the Books of Dr. Quanay and I could not understand much of them, and much of what 1 did understand I did not believe. He was a sort of Jacob Behmen, a Count Zinzendorf or German Kant, a Swiedenburgh or George Whitfield. He had a practice of Knighting his Disciples. And Dr. Frank- lin professing to be one of his Disciples, procured an introduction to him and condescended to receive this honor from his hands. The hand of this Man laid upon the head of one of his Disciples, conferred a Mark of distinction, a priviledged order, which for what I know was respected by at least as many People among the Philosophers as the Cross of Saint Louis, or the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 121 Ribbon of the Holy Ghost. The Perfectibility of Man was as I think one of the Dogmas of this sect. And one great Branch of this Perfectibility was a universal and perpetual Peace among all Nations and all Men. This Idea was not invented by Dr. Priestley, for the Abby de Saint Pierre had written two volumes upon uni- versal and perpetual Peace an hundred years before him. Some who pretend to believe in these pacific systems, advance that it is only necessary to convince all Nations and Peoples and Individuals, that war is never in any case advantageous to them. This to be sure does not at first blush appear to be very easily done. But let us never cease to din in the ears of the people this great Truth and others connected with it. Let us fatigue them with perpetual exclamations on the enormous in- crease of Taxes, Imposts, Excises and duties, for the maintenance of Armies and Navies always on foot; on the draughts from Agriculture and Industry of an im- mense number of hands, whose utility belongs not only to the Nation that produced them, but to all other nations who might enjoy the fruit of their Labour by Commerce. On the impossibility of preserving internal Liberty with the system of permanent Troops or standing Armies and our American Knights of Quanay would add Navies or any thing more powerful at sea than Gun Boats. On the immense destruction of Lives, for a dead Man is good for nothing, but a living Man as long as he can work and consume the fruits of the earth or the Manufactures of Industry, is useful to the whole society of the human Race. On the inconceivable Barbarity of cutting one 122 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. anothers throats. Our Philosophers add that no other Being but Man is Guilty of this Crime, although he is the only one whose interest is connected with the Life of his fellow. But in this they assert facts diametri- cally contrary to the Truth : for the whole animal Creation as far as we are acquainted with it are daily destroying and feeding on their fellow Creatures. And those of the same species fight and kill, as often as Men. And some of them not unfrequently eat one another. The animals too are interested in one an- others Lives, in a very great degree if not so much as Men. In Sum, on the evils, absurdities, Inconsistencies and horrors of War. On the other hand we must challenge all Mankind, to produce one single advantage which results from War. Anciently the People sometimes appeared to derive some advantage by the spoils which were placed in the public Treasuries, to defray the expenses and exempt them from Taxes. This benefit however was only in appearance. But now the fruits of victory are so far from compensating the expenses of it, that we must support our Taxes even in time of Peace. Now the People arm themselves against each other, only to support the mad pretensions and to cherish the stupid Pride of an handful of Despotts, Nobles and Priests. Now, Commerce, the instrument of an uni- versal alliance, establishing a Channel of communica- tion between Man and Man, from the North Pole to the South renders it visible to the grossest eyesight, that we are made for one another, that our destination is to be useful reciprocally, that we are members of the same body and children of the same family. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 123 Now the Art of Printing, that Gift of Heaven, apply- ing the reason of the present and all past Generations, to the benefit of all Nations, carries with the rapidity of Lightening these benevolent, salutary and beneficent sentiments, over all parts of the Globe. These are the arms with which we are to excite the holy insurrection of Nature against the Despots, who would stifle her voice. Barbarians as they are ! They have only to will and to write, and the accents of Equality and Fraternity would resound in every heart! Not one of them ever conceived the sublime Idea! They collect Men together, only to make them fall under each others blows, like those who for a vile profit, exhibit spectacles of animals, whom they excite to lacerate one another. Differences may arise between nations as well as in- dividuals, but as the latter discuss their rights before Trybunals, there is no difficulty moral or phisical, to prevent the former from following a similar procedure. The time will come when the whole world will cover with Benedictions the generous nation, which by being the first to pronounce that she renounced the right of Conquest, has displayed the standard of universal peace. I shall not essay an examination of this Revery of a Perfectionist. Of all the Patriot things that Pultney writ, The Earl of Bath confutes it every Bit. Bonaparte at the head of this generous Nation, has taught the world some different Lessons. Quanay taught before Priestley. So did the Quakers. 124 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Your honest Neighbours of this denomination can har- rangue as eloquently on this subject as the French Philosophers: so could their predecessors before Priestley was born. Give me leave now to turn your attention to a set of Philosophers much more ancient than these. I shall confine myself to one of them at present, and to save you the trouble of consulting Concordances will quote Chapter and Verse. Turn then if you please to the eleventh chapter of Isaiah and the sixth verse " The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the Leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the Calf and the young Lion and the fading together ; and a little Child shall lead them. And the Cow and the Bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the Lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp, and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." And again in Chapter sixty fifth verse 25. "The Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Bullock, and dust shall be the serpents meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain." I am not about to write a Book upon the Prophecies and therefore will not be more particular. But there are other Prophecies which speak of a time to come when Men shall beat their Swords into Ploughshares and their spears into pruning Hooks and learn War no more. What may be the meaning of these highly figurative expressions. I shall not at present enquire. But they seem to intimate an hap- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 125 pier and more pacific state of human Life than Reason or Experience would justify us in expecting. Condor- cet however would pronounce them at once " Visions Judaiques" and pay no more regard to them than to the Prophecies of the Sybills. They are however as distinct and rational intimations of the perfectibility of Man abstracted from all divine authority, as any french Phylosopher has ever foretold. How then can Con- dorcet pretend to have first started the Idea. Price and Priestley believed these Prophecies to be inspired. How then can they pretend to have in- vented the same thing. I say Priestley believed these Prophecies for they seemed to be the only parts of the Bible that he thought inspired. 45 years ago when I wore my Barrister Gown band and Tye wig a French Barber in Boston was in the habit of shaving and dressing me. His Name I think was Dehon. One morning he told me he had lived some years in London and dressed several of the No- bility, of one of whom he related a long story of some very extravagant conduct, which I have forgot. Dehon concluded his story by observing that his Lordship was a little "crack." All the Nobility in England, Mr. Adams added Dehon, are crack. He meant cracked. I have long thought the Philosophers of the eighteenth Century and almost all the Men of Science and Letters, crack. In my youth I was much amused with the Idea that this Globe of Earth was the Bedlam of the Uni- verse. If I were now to judge of it by the Conduct and Writings of the Men of Science, I should be more disposed than ever to believe that the Sun, Moon and Stars send all their Lunaticks here for confinement, as they used to send them from Paris to Brietre. I must 126 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. tell you that my wife, who took a fancy to read this letter as it lay upon my table, bids me tell you that she thinks my head too, a little crack, and I am half of that mind myself. Although McKean has been somewhat of a Whiffler and a Shuffler, I should be sorry to hear that he was subjected to an impeachment, of which you seem to think him in danger. I think him an honest Man in the main, though sometimes misled by his vanity and Ambition as so many others of our revolutionary Patriots have been and are. The facility and fre- quency of Impeachments in this Country forebode much evil. They are very dangerous remedies and should never be employed but in desperate Cases. My Paper allows me room to subscribe myself your affec- tionate Friend J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Feb. 2. 1807. My dear Doctor,-You make me very happy when you say that you agree with me upon the subject of the Perfectibility of Man. Let every Man endeavor to amend and improve one and we shall find ourselves in the right Road to all the Perfection we are capable of: but this rule should by no means exclude our utmost exertions to amend and improve others, and in every way and by all means in our Power to ameliorate the Lot of Humanity, Invent new Medicines, construct new Machines write new Books, build better Houses, and Ships, institute better Governments, discountenance false Religions, propagate the only true one, diminish OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 127 the vices and increase the Virtues of all Men and Women whenever we can. You have done a great deal, and I very little in this way. I sometimes wish that I had never been concerned in any public Business. I might then have been sure that I had done no harm. One of the Popes ordered an inscription upon his Monument, which would suit me very well. Hie situs est Adrian, qui nihil sibi in vita infelicius duxit, quam quod imperavit. I beg that you would not spare a moment of your time, or one of your thoughts from your business on account of my Letters. If I had any useful employ- ment I should not write them. But as Voltaire says "Il est plus difficile de s'amuser, que de s'enricher." You can grow rich and do good easier than I can avoid ennui. I dont know but what I shall take your advice and write my own worthless Life, merely to keep my- self out of Idleness. If my generous fellow Citizens, the wisest and best People under heaven you know, had discarded me from all public employment, while I could have spoken so as to be understood at the Bar, by the Court and Jury I would have thanked them. But they wore me out with hard service and then turned me adrift like an old Dray Horse. But I have read Dr. Isaac Barrow upon Contentment and Patience, and have learned of him to despize my Despizers. Stop ! Is there not too much pride in this last senti- ment? I know not but I believe Dr. Barrow will bear me out in it. The Bible contains the most profound Philosophy, the most perfect Morality, and the most refined Policy that ever wTas conceived upon earth. It is the most 128 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Republican Book in the World, and therefore I will still revere it. The Curses against Fornication and Adul- tery, and the prohibition of every wanton glance or libinous ogle at a woman, I believe to be the only sys- tem that ever did or ever will preserve a Republick in the World. There is a Paradox for you. But if I dont make it out you may say if you please that I am an enthusiast. I say then that national Morality never was and never can be preserved, without the utmost purity and chastity in women: and without national Morality a Republican Government cannot be maintained. There- fore my dear Fellow Citizens of America, you must ask leave of your wives and daughters to preserve your Republick. I believe I shall write a Book upon this Topick before I die and if I could articulate a word I dont know but I would go into the Pulpit and preach upon it. I should be very learned : ransack Greece, and Rome and judea and France and England and Holland &c. What shall I say of the Democratical Vice President and the Federal would be President Burr. Although I never thought so highly of his natural Talents or his acquired attainments, as many of both parties have represented them, I never believed him to be a Fool. But he must be an Idiot or a Lunatick if he has really planned and attempted to execute such a Project as is imputed to him. It is even more senseless and extrav- agant than Mirandas. It is utterly incredible that any foreign Power, should have instigated him. It is utterly incredible that without foreign aid he should have thought that the transalleganian People would revolt with him ; or even if they should revolt, that he and they could maintain themselves against the United States, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 129 who could so easily block up the Mississippi. Any Man who has read the circular Letters to their Constituents from Members of the House of Representatives in Congress from some of the Southern States, while I was President, must be convinced that there were very many among them who had no more regard to Truth than the Devil. At present I suspect that this Lying Spirit has been at Work concerning Burr and that Mr. Jefferson has been too hasty in his Message in which he has denounced him by name and pronounced him guilty. But if his guilt is as clear as the Noon day Sun, the first Magistrate ought not to have pronounced it so before a Jury had tryed him. Wilkinsons Conduct, as it is represented is equally unjustifiable. But we shall hear more about it. The whole Thing is a kind of Waterspout a terrible Whirl- pool, threatening to ingulph every Thing. But it may be as the Fable says that single Bullet shot through it, will quell it all at once to the level of the sea. Eatons relation is very strange. The President takes no Notice of it. Is Burr so shallow as soberly to confide such a secret to him ? But why is he called General Eaton ? Our Laws forbid any Commission to be taken under a foreign Power. He had no Commis- sion from the President. He was only appointed by the Ex Bashaw. He had no more authority than Mr. Deane had when he entered into a Contract with Du Coudray and his hundred officers, and assumed the Powers of a Plenipotentiary. You and I have seen enough of adventurers to be put upon our guard. I of all Men in the world would be the farthest from injuring Eaton. I have every motive in the world to wish that his reward may be equal to his merit, but reports are 130 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. current, which suggest to me the propriety of suspend- ing Judgment. I mention this to you in perfect Confidence, but with great reluctance. I hope all will turn out better than my fears. The hint may be of use to you. It cannot now be long before an Ecclairiessement must take place and we shall know better what to think of Burr and his designs. I am dear Sir with usual Compliments yours J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy April 12. 1807. Dear Sir,-Your favour of the third is received. I am willing to allow you Philosophers your opinion of the universal Gravitation of Matter, if you will allow mine that there is in some souls a principle of absolute Levity that buoys them irresistably into the Clouds. Whether you call it etherial spirit or inflammable air it has an uncontroulable Tendency to ascend, and has no capacity to ascertain the height at which it aims or the means by which it is to rise. This I take to be precisely the Genius of Burr, Miranda and Hamilton, among a thousand others of less or more Note. These Creat- ures have no prudence. If a Man is once so disar- ranged in his Intellect as to deliberate upon a Project of ascending to the seven starrs, it is natural enough that he should first attempt to seize the two Horns of the New Moon and make her his first stage. Burrs project of making himself V. P. of U. S. to a reasonable Man would have appeared an high degree of extravagance, for there were ten thousand Men in OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 131 the United States, who were as well qualified for it and had merited it by much greater services, sufferings and sacrifices. Yet in this he succeeded. Buoyed up by the flattery of the Presbyterians in Connecticutt, New York, New Jersey, Pensilvania and all the Southern States, from the Veneration in which they held his Father and Grandfather, the Factions of Clintons and Livingstons alternately employed him as their Instru- ment, till the Virginians conceived the Project of en- gaging him to corrupt the State of New York from the Federal Interest. In this They and he succeeded : but all the rest of his Projects have been chimerical and without success. What could have inspired Burr with hopes of being an Ambassador, a Chief Justice of Pen- silvania or a Governor of New York, or Vice P. of U. S. Omnia Numina absunt, si absit Prudentia. Prudence is the first of Virtues and the root of all others. With- out Prudence there may be abstinence but not Temper- ance ; there may be rashness but not Fortitude; there may be insensibility or obstinacy but not Patience. Without Prudence, to weigh and deliberate on the Nature and consequences of an enterprise, and to con- sider his means and his end, a Man who engages in it, commits himself to Chance, and not seldom when a thousand Chances are against him to one in his favour. I pity my old Friend McKean. Like many others of our Antidiluvian Patriarchs he was carried away into error by the French Revolution and delivered himself into the hands of a party with whom he never could cordially co-operate. In the Time of Robespierre and his bloodyest Cruel- ties I dined once in Company with McKean, Gallatin and Burr and they were all very loud in praise of Robes- 132 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. pierre. " He was honest, and the Saviour of France." Some of the Company presumed to censure their Patriot and Hero, and all three of those Gentlemen cried out " Robespierres Crime is his Honesty." How many Instances do we see every day which prove that Honesty is not the best Policy. They have all of them tried a different Policy, but I believe they will all come to a bad end and find at last that Honesty would have been a better Policy. I now come to a Mystery in your Letter. I have but four Grandsons : two of them are boys under seven years of age and have been at my House and in Boston all Winter. They are the Children of my son John ; the two others are sons of my Daughter Smith, the youngest of whom whose name is John is now with me, and has not been in Philadelphia since last May; the oldest is William now to my great Grief in Trinidad. No Letter therefore can have been left at your House from any Grandson of mine. I cannot unriddle this Mystery but by supposing that some adventurer has forged a Letter : but for what end I know not. I thank you with all my heart for your kind Intentions towards my supposed Grandson. They are as authentic proofs of your Friendship, as if it had been my real Grand- son. Pennsylvania can fall down on one broadside and then roll over to the other broadside, and then turn keel upwards and then right herself up again. She is a ship however so violently addicted to pitching and rolling that I should not wonder if she dismasted her- self. To quit the figure and speak plain English I have long thought that the first serious civil war in America OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 133 will commence in Pensilvania. The two Nations of Irish and Germans who compose the principal part of the People, are so entirely governed by their Passions, have so little reason and less knowledge that it will be impossible to keep them steady in any just system of Policy. They will one day repent in Saccloth the as- cendency they have given to the Transaleganian and Southern Atlantic States and so will New York. But so contagious is Folly that we in the Mass, are running the same course. I do not believe however that Sul- livan if he should be chosen, will harmonize long with his Party. Not half so long as McKean has. He is in heart and in head no more of a Democrat than McKean. I have known him not much less than forty years. He has never been a steady nor a Man. But he is not malevolent enough for his Party, nor ignorant. His general aim has been to be of the strongest side, and consequently he has often offended all Parties at times. I should be glad to receive your explication of the strange Story of my Grandson. You do not say that the Letter was from Col. Smith. What can the se- cret be ? My Family reciprocate the friendly sentiments of yours and none more heartily than J. Adams. Dr. Rush. I thank you, my dear sir for the promptitude of your answer to my last Letter, and for inclosing the misteri- ous one to you, which however has every appearance of honesty about it. My Daughter started the Idea Quincy May i. 1807. 10 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 134 that it might be our Friend Wm. Smith of Charlestown who married Miss Izzard : but the date of the Letter is New York. My Daughter, upon my receipt of your Letter wrote to her Husband on the subject. If I can persuade her to give me an extract of his answer I will inclose it. If Credit is to be given to Judge Innis's Deposition, and Sebastians Conviction it is certain that Spain has tampered in the U. S. and if she tampered once before with others she might a second time, with Burr. If I were convinced of his Guilt of treason or treasonable Intentions I should infer that he was employed by Spain. You ask me if I do not sometimes imprecate evils on the day, on which I became a Politician. I have en- deavoured to recollect that day. It is a remote one. A mighty impression was made upon my little head at the Time of the Expedition against Cape Breton, under General Pepperel, in 1745 and on the approach of the Duke D'Anvilles Armament against Boston. But I have only my memory to testify so early. An odd accident has within a month brought to light the enclosed Letter, which has lain fifty one years and an half in darkness and silence, in dust and Oblivion. Pray tell me your Reflections on the Sight of this droll Phenomenon. I fancy they will be 1. What would our Tories and Quakers and Proprietors have said if this Letter had been pub- lished in 1774, 5 or 6? But I will not guess at any more of your Observations. You shall make them yourself and relate them to me. But I will make my own Remarks first and submit them to you. 1. Pain in common sense, says that no body in OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 135 America, ever thought, till he revealed to them the mighty Truth that America would ever be independent. I remember not the Words, but this is the sense as I remember it. This I have always, at all times and in all places contradicted and have affirmed that the Idea of American Independence, sooner or later, and of, the Necessity of it, sometime or other was always familiar to Gentlemen of reflection in all Parts of America and I spoke of my own knowledge in this Province. 2. I very distinctly remember that in the War of 1755, a Union of the Colonies to defend themselves against the encroachments of the French was the general wish of the Gentlemen with whom I conversed : and it was the opinion of some that we could defend ourselves and even conquer Canada, better without England than with her, if she would but allow us to unite and exert our Strength, Courage and Skill, diffi- dent as we were of the last. 3. It was the fear of this Union of the Colonies which was indeed commenced in a Congress at Albany, which induced the English to take the war into their own hands. 4. The War was so ill conducted by Shirley, Lord Loudun, Braddock and all other British Commanders till Wolf and Amherst came forward, that the utmost Anxiety prevailed and a thousand Panicks were spread lest the French should overrun us all. At this time I was not alone in wishing, that we were unshackled by Britain and left to defend ourselves. 5. The Treatment of the Provincial officers and soldiers by the British officers during that War, made my blood boil in my Veins. 136 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 6. Notwithstanding all this, I had no desire of Independence, as long as Britain would do us Justice. I knew it must be an obstinate struggle, and saw no advantage in it, as long as Britain should leave our Liberties inviolate. 7. Jefferson has acquired such Glory by his declara- tion of Independence in 1776 that I think I may mod- estly enough boast of my Declaration of Independence in 1755, twenty one years older than his. 8. Our Governor elect, in his Biographical Sketch of Samuel Adams ascribes to him the honour of the first Idea and Project of Independence. In 1755 when my Letter to Doctor Nathan Webb was written I had never seen the Face of Samuel Adams. 9. The English, the Scotch, the Tories and Hyperfed- eralists will rebellow their execrations against me as a Rebel from my Infancy and a Plotter of Independence more than half a hundred years ago. 10. The present Ruling Party in the United States, will renew, repeat and redouble their curses and sarcasms against me, for having meditated the Ruin and destruc- tion of this Country, from a Boy, from a mere Chicken in the Egg shell, by building a Navy, under pretence of protecting our Commerce and sea ports, but in reality only as a Hobby Horse for myself to ride and to in- crease my Patronage. For there can be no doubt that the Boy, though not yet twenty years old, and though pinched and starved in a stingy Country School, fully expected to be King of North America and to marry his Daughter to the Prince of Wales and his son John Quincy to the Princess Royal of England. 11. There can be no doubt, that this Letter, puerile and childish as it is, will make a distinguished figure OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 137 in the Memoirs of my Life. A grave and important question arises on a point of Chronology ; whether it should be inserted in the month of October 1755 the time of its Birth or in the month of April 1807, the time of its resurrection. As you have advised me to write my own Life you must resolve this question for me, for it is too perplexed for my Judgment to de- termine. 12. You may depend upon its authenticity for I have copied it from the original, to every word and almost every Letter of which I can attest, and so might any one else who should compare it, with this from the sim- ilarity of hand and composition. 13. Vive La Bagatelle. Now sir, to be serious : I do not curse the day, when I engaged in public affairs. I do not say when I became a Politician, for that I never was. I cannot repent of any Thing I ever did, conscienciously from a sense of Duty. I never engaged in public affairs, for my own Interest, Pleasure, Envy, Jealousy, Avarice or Ambition or even the desire of Fame. If any of these had been my Motives, my Conduct would have been very different. In every considerable Transaction of my public Life, I have invariably acted according to my best judgment for the public good, and I can look up to God for the sincerity of my Intentions. How then is it possible I can repent. Notwithstanding this I have an immense Load of Errors, Weaknesses, follies and sins to mourn over and repent of, and these are the only affliction of my present Life. But notwithstanding all, Saint Paul and Dr. Barrow have taught me to rejoice evermore and be content. This Phrase "rejoice evermore" shall never be out of 138 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. my heart, memory or mouth again as long as I live, if I can help it. This is my Perfectibility of Man. Your "Palace of Ice" is a most admirable Image. I agree, that you and I have been employed in building a Palace of Ice. However if we did not believe it to be marble or silver or Gold or Ivory or Alabaster, or stone or Brick, we both thought it good sound white oak which would shelter its Inhabitants from the Inclemency of the Weather and last a long time. But the heat of the Climate in Summer has proved it to have been Ice. It is all melted to Water. All Letters and Packetts to or from John Adams are exempted from Postage and the Philadelphia Post Office is the only one in the Union that has the Ignorance or Knavery to dispute it. I fancy Captain Patten is again Post Master there. All my Family salute all yours. I am as usual John Adams. P.S.-I forgot a principal Point I had in view when I sat down, i.e. to congratulate you that the Queen of Etruria has fallen in Love with you. Tell Mrs. Rush that I congratulate her that the Queen of Sheba is not likely to visit Solomon at Philadelphia. Dr. Rush. Quincy May 21. 1807. Dear Sir,-I return you the Letter of Edward Smith. Time may or may not unriddle this whimsical Mystery. It ought however in the mean time to put us on our guard against Intrigues. My not preserving a Copy of my Letter to Dr. Nathan Webb [for he was a Physician] is no wonder: for I OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 139 never kept a Copy of any Letter, till I became a Mem- ber of Congress in 1774. The observation of your son Richard is very shrewd, and unfortunately for me very just. There are the same marks of haste and the same heedless inattention to style which have characterised all my writings to this day. I have always laughed at the affectation of represent- ing American Independence as a novel Idea, as a modern discovery, as a late Invention. The Idea of it as a pos- sible Thing, as a probable event, nay as a necessary and unavoidable Measure, in case Great Britain should as- sume an unconstitutional authority over us, has been familiar to Americans from the first settlement of the Country; and was as well understood by Governor Winthrop in 1675 as by Governor Sam. Adams when he told you that Independence had been the first wish of his heart for seven years. I suppose he dated from 1768 when the Board of Commissioners arrived and landed in Boston under the Protection of Nine Ships of War and four thousand regular Troops. A Couplet has been repeated with rapture as long as I can remember, which was imputed to Dean Berkley. The first Line I have forgot: but the last was " And Empire Rises where the sun descends." This was public many years before my Letter of Oct. 1755 to Doctor Webb. In 1760 Coll Josiah Quincy the Grandfather of Josiah Quincy now a Member of Congress from Boston, read to me a Letter he had then just received from a Mr. Turner I believe, one of the first mercantile Houses in London, congratulating him on the surrender of Mon- treal to General Amherst and the final Conquest of Canada "as a great event for America not only by in- suring her tranquility and repose, but as facilitating and 140 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. advancing your [Coll QuincysJ Countries rise to inde- pendence and empire." Within the course of the year before the Meeting of Congress in 1774 on a Journey to some of our Circuit Courts in Massachusetts, I stopped one night at a Tavern in Shrewsbury about forty miles from Boston : and as I was cold and wett I sat down at a good fire in the Bar room to dry my great Coat and saddlebags, till a fire could be made in my Chamber. There presently came in, one after another half a dozen or half a score sub- stantial yeomen of the Neighbourhood, who, sitting down to the fire after lighting their Pipes, began a lively con- versation upon Politicks. As I believed I was unknown to all of them, I sat in total silence to hear them. One said "The People of Boston are distracted." Another answered No wonder the People of Boston are dis- tracted ; oppression will make wise Men mad. A third said, what would you say, if a Fellow should come to your house and tell you he was come to take a list of your Cattle that Parliament might tax you for them at so much a head ? And how should you feel if he should go out and break open your barn, to take down your oxen, Cows, horses and sheep ? What would I say, re- plied the first, I would knock him in the head. Well, said a fourth, if Parliament can take away Mr. Hancocks wharf and Mr. Rows wharf they can take away your Barn and my house. After much more reasoning in this style, a fifth who had as yet been silent, broke out "Well it is high time for us to rebel. We must rebel sometime or other: and we had better rebel now than at any time to come: if we put it off for ten or twenty years, and let them go on as they have begun, they will get a strong Party among us, and plague us a great deal OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 141 more than they can now. As yet they have but a small Party on their side." I was disgusted with his word "rebel" because I was determined never to rebel as much as I was to resist rebellion against the fundamental principles of the Constitution whenever british Generals or Governors should begin it. I mention this Anecdote to shew that the Idea of Independence was familiar even among the common People much earlier than some per- sons pretend. I have heard some Gentlemen of Edu- cation say that the first Idea of Independence was suggested to them by the Pamphlet Common Sense, and others that they were first converted by it to that Doc- trine : but these were Men of very little Conversation with the World and Men of very narrow views and very little reflection. Your ennemies are only your would be rivals. They can never hurt you. Envy is a foul Fiend, that is only to be defyed. You read Sully. His Memoirs are a pretty specimen. Every honest, virtuous and able Man that ever existed, from Abel down to Dr. Rush, has had this enemy to combat, through Life. " Envy does merit as its shade pursues." You need not fear the charge of vanity. Vanity is really what the French call it, amour propre, self Love, and it is an universal Passion. All Men have it in an equal degree. Honest Men do not always disguise it. Knaves often do, if not always. When you see or hear a Man pique himself on his Modesty, you may depend upon it he is as vain a fellow as lives, and very probably a great Villain. I would advise you to communicate freely all the Compliments you have had or may receive from Europe. Defy the foul Fiend. Do not infer from this that I think there is no such thing as Modesty or Decency. On the con- 142 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. trary it is the Duty of every Man to respect the self love of every other Man, and not to disgust him by any ostentatious displays of his own. But in your case, surrounded as you are by jealous Competitors, always intriguing to depress you, it is your right and your Duty to mortify their invidious impertinence by a free communication of all your Trophies to your Friends, without any injunctions of secresy. I have not seen the Pamphlet entitled the dangers of the Country, but my Mind is deeply impressed with a sense of the Dangers of our Countries and all other Countries ; of France as well as England. Of all Coun- tries there is none more to be pitied than France. Eng- land in my opinion is in a less dangerous situation than her Rival. The ominous dissolution of Morality both in Theory and Practice throughout the civilized World, threatens dangers and calamities of a novel species, beyond all Calculation : because there is no Precedent or Example in History which can shew us the Consequences of it. Perhaps you may say Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorra are examples in Point. But we have no rela- tions of their rise, progress or decline. You may say the old World, when it repented God that he had made Man, when it grieved him in his heart that he had made so vile a Creature is a Case in Point. I know not what to say in answer to this, only that the same authority we have for the fact, assures us that the World shall never be again drowned. I am my dear sir yours Dr. Rush. J. Adams. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 143 Quincy May 23d. 1807. Dr. Sir,-I received at an exhibition of Musick in our polite village of Mount Woollaston, on Thursday, your Letter relative to Mr. Loude, and sent it immedi- ately to Dr. Tufts by his Lady, that the young Gentle- mans Friends might be informed of his situation. I lament the untimely decline of a youth, although I never saw him, who has been represented to me, as one who injured his health by too intense an application to study. I never heard his Name, but once when my Brother Cranch mentioned him to me, before he embarked on his voyage. And now I have mentioned my Brother Cranch, a Gentleman of fourscore, whose Memory is better than mine, I will relate to you a conversation with him last evening. I asked him if he recollected the first Line of a Couplet, whose second Line was " And Empire rises where the sun descends." He paused a Moment and said The Eastern Nations sink, their glory ends And Empire rises where the sun descends. I asked him if Deane Bercley was the author of them. He answered No. The Tradition was, as he had heard it for sixty years, that these Lines were inscribed, or rather drilled into a Rock on the shore of Monument Bay in our old Colony of Plymouth, and were supposed to have been written and engraved there by some of the first emigrants from Leyden who landed at Ply- mouth. However this may be, I may add my Testi- mony to Mr. Cranch's that I have heard these verses for more than sixty years. I conjecture that Berkley became connected with them in my head by some re- 144 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. port that the Bishop had copied them, into some publi- cation. There is nothing in my little reading, more ancient in my Memory than the observation that Arts, Sciences and Empire had travelled Westward : and in Conversation it was always added, since I was a Child that their next Leap would be over the Atlantick into America. The Claim of the 1776 Men to the honour of first conceiving the Idea of American Independence, or of first inventing the project of it, is as ridiculous as that of Dr. Priestly, to the discovery of the Perfectibility of Man. I hereby disclaim all Pretensions to it, because it was much more ancient than my Nativity. Your Friend J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy June 23. 1807. Dear Sir,-I have received your favour of the ninth of this Month and conveyed to Dr. Tufts your Letter to him, who desires me to express to you the high sense he has of your Benevolence and Humanity to Mr. John Loude. The Doctor will write you as soon as he can find means for conveying to the Parents of that unfort- unate Youth the money you enclosed. What shall we say, my Friend ? A pious and virtuous youth, struggling from his Cradle with Poverty, impressed with an un- quenchable Thirst of knowledge, and through every difficulty forcing his way to universal Love and Esteem wherever he went, cutt off in his Career and thrown into the Grave, like an useless or a noxious Weed, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 145 when such Men as you and I can recollect in abundance, live to threescore years and ten and even fourscore and fourscore and ten ? This Child neither was guilty of Perjury to the Gods, nor Impiety to his Parents, nor Treason against his Country, nor Murder of his fellows, nor any of those Crimes, which ancient and Modern Phylosophers and Legislators have taught us to believe the most calculated to draw down divine Vengeance. He had no guilt directly nor indirectly in the Slave Trade. He was neither principal nor accessory, neither aider, abettor or accomplice in depriving any human Being of his Liberty, Life or Property. We must not ascribe his Misfortunes and Death, Vindictae Divinae. We must have recourse to our good Religion for the solution of the difficulty, for there only we shall find it. From Reflections like these the Transition is easy to "The Danger of the Country," a Pamphlet for which I thank you and which I have read with great Pleasure and much advantage. It abounds with observations of the greatest importance and with Information much of which was new to me. I was provoked to hear it lately mentioned with a certain slight, and charged with declamation. The allu- sions might be to his reflections on the Slave Trade: and although there is not a word that he says upon that subject which I did not read with delight, I must ac- knowledge that I cannot concur in his Conclusions. That the Calamities of Europe are a punishment for her vices, I have not doubt. But she has sinned against the whole Decalogue and the Crimes of Sodom might .be assigned as the procuring Cause of the anger of Heaven as well as the Slave Trade. We are too much byased by our self love and our private Interests and 146 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. affections as well as by our peculiar turn of thinking; and our Information is too contracted for us to be com- petent Judges of the designs of Providence in the dis- tribution of good and evil, Rewards and Punishments to Nations or Individuals in this World. I could adduce facts and arguments in a particular Case, to prove the interposition of Providence to punish the enemies of one Man, as plausible as those of Mr. Stevens to shew that Bonaparte has been raised up to scourge the Traders in Slaves. I ought not to introduce my essay without something like a Preface. The saying of Vitellius that " the Body of a dead ennemy always smells well" was always as abhorrent to my moral sentiments as the expression was loath- some to my senses. I have often heard Dr. Franklin say that " one of the Pleasures of old age was to out- live ones ennemies." This sentiment also never failed to disgust and shock me. Possibly I might think there was more Inhumanity and Indelicacy in it than he felt or intended. But I have never allowed myself to rejoice in the Death of ennemies, and I know not that I ever heard of the death of any enemy without pain. If this could have been a source of pleasure to me, I should have had a surfeit of it. You will not suspect that I am weak or presumptuous enough to believe or even to conjecture that Providence has ever specially inter- posed to vindicate me or to discountenance my ennemies. The Thought strikes me with horror. Yet for what I know there may have been Fanaticks in the World, who would have flattered themselves that they were Favourites. Soon after I took my Seat in the Chair of the Senate as Vice President of the United States, a certain Ed- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 147 ward Church, who made himself my enemy for no reason that I know of, unless it were because his Brother Benjamin was accused of Treason, published a scandal- ous and scurrilous Libel against me in verse, for which Washington ought to have punished him : but instead of frowning upon him he appointed him Consul at Lis- bon, where his Conduct was so bad that the Government complained against him, and he was removed and became a vagabond. A certain Loyd was then at New York and was employed as I was informed to write Libells against me in the Newspapers. But he found so little encouragement that he returned to England, where I soon heard that he was imprisoned in the Kings Bench and sett in the Pillory for Libells against the Govern- ment. Greenleaf too a Printer of a Jacobin Paper in New York, who filled his Columns for years with libel- lous Paragraphs against me, was at length carried off by the Yellow Fever. In Philadelphia, a certain Peter Marcou, a drunken Poet, discarded by his father from all the apartments in his House but his kitchen, who was frequently seen drunk and asleep in the Streets, was hired from time to time with Potts of strong Beer, by Andrew Brown, to step aside into a Closet in his House and write virulent Libells ao-ainst me, for the Philadelphia Gazette. It was not long before this inso- lent sott drank himself into his Grave. Andrew Brown himself when he first opened his printing office came out to Bush Hill in the most cringing manner to beg of me the Loan of Tom Paines Rights of Man, the two first Copies of which were received by me from Brand Hollis and Billy Franklin. He not only kept my Pamphlet which he solemnly promised to return, but immediately commenced in his Newspaper the most vil- 148 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ainous Course of Lies against me that his own Ingenuity added to that of the Toper Marcou could invent. Pickering who had him in his Power took him in hand and brought him to the most abject submission and the most solemn Promises of Amendment. But he could not long refrain from abusing me, till his House was burnt and his Wife and Children in it, and himself scortched to such a degree that he died in a few days. This looks the most like the Vindicta Divina, for some Crime or other. Benjamin Beach too in his Aurora, in revenge for Washingtons neglect of his Father and his Family was converted from a zealous Federalist to an abandoned Jacobin and became of course one of the most malicious Libellers of me. But the Yellow Fever arrested him in his detestable Career, and sent him to his Grandfather, from whom he inherited a dirty, en- vious, jealous and revengefull spight against me, for no other cause under heaven than because I was too honest a Man to favour or connive at his selfish schemes of ambition and avarice. Next to him I will mention John Fenno the younger, who after his Fathers death, threw himself into the arms of an English Faction, and with the utmost ingratitude to me, not only published his own abuses but the Libells of Macdonald the British Commissioner, and some of his Tools, such as Will. Smith and others. Well! what became of John Fenno junior ? Why the Yellow Fever soon disposed of him. Cobbet too, from being a prodigious admirer of me became a Libbeller not only of you but of me. And of me for no other reason but because I would not involve my Country in a foreign and civil War, merely to make Alexander Hamilton Commander in Chief of an army of fifty thousand Men. This compleated Cobbets ruin OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 149 in America, when he had once a prospect of making a fortune. Alexander Callender, for that I believe was his name, though he assumed that of Stephens Thomp- son Mason, his great Patron and Protector, to disguise his real name and Character, for I presume he was the Rascal who fled from a criminal prosecution in Scot- land and left his Bail in the Lurch. This Fellow who knew nothing of me was bribed to publish the most in- famous calumnies against me. His Fate is well known. Discarded by the Party who had bribed him, he became as arrant a Libeller of them and was evidently prepar- ing to become the Instrument of his Co Patriot, his Brother Scotchman Alexander Hamilton, in order to procure him to be elected President of the United States. This Miscreant, after spending half his time in the lowest Intoxication in the streets, and in the vilest places, after getting his head broken and suffering every Insult was found drowned in the sea or a River whither he dropped in a fit or was plunged in by an enemy. Thus ended Callender, and his Namesake and Coun- tryman Alexander Hamilton came to an end not much more to be envied. Of all the Libellers of me this was the most unprovoked, the most ungrateful and the most unprincipled. Under the most specious appearances and Professions, of the most cordial, respectful and affectionate attachment to me, and after having received a thousand favours and obligations from me, I have now evidence enough that he had concealed the most insid- ious schemes and plotts to undermine my reputation and deprive me of the favour of the Public. Finding he could not succeed in this, he took advantage of a mo- ment of fermentation wickedly excited by himself and II OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 150 his fellow Conspirators to come out with the most false, malicious and revengefull Libell that ever was written. To this he had no Provocation but because I would make Peace with France, and could not in conscience make him Commander in Chief of an Army of fifty thousand men. But this Caitiff too came to a bad end. Fifteen years of continual slanders against Burr great numbers of which I heard myself, provoked a Call to the Field of Honor as they call it, and sent him, pardoned I hope in his last moments, to his long home by a Pistol Bullet through his spine. Burr, I never considered as my personal enemy. He would not have been my political enemy, if Hamilton would have permitted Washington to allow me to nom- inate him to the Senate as a Brigadier in the Army. But Burr must and would be something, and flectere sine queo superos Accharonta movebo, was as excusable a Maxim in him, as it was in Hamilton, McKean, Fred. Muhlenbourg, Tench Coxe, and fifty more that I could name in one breath. Burr became my political enemy and Jeffersons political Friend, not from any affection to him or disaffection to me, but merely to make way for himself to mount the Ladder of Ambition. The most efficatious enemy and Friend to be sure he was. By intriguing with Clintons and Livingstons against Ham- ilton he turned the State of New York and consequently the Ballance of the Continent. But what has been Burrs reward? It is doubtful whether Hamilton, Andrew Brown, or Alexander Callender, are so signal Monu- ments of divine vengeance and whether their destiny is not to be preferred to his. At the same time that I say this, I am not insensible of the Possibility that he may yet be President of the United States. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 151 I could swell this Catalogue to much greater Length, by enumerating Instances of Individuals and Parties who have been marked with signal Misfortunes after having been guilty of Injustice and Baseness to me : but these are enough. If I could take pleasure in the death or Calamities of my Enemies, I might have a surfeit of it. But I have not a disposition so vindictive: and if I had I would exert all my Philosophy and summon all my Religion to subdue and suppress it. Now let me ask you have I not proved that Provi- dence has frowned upon my enemies by Fate as certain and arguments as conclusive as those by which Mr. Stevens attempts to prove the Calamities of Europe to be punishments for her sins against Africa. General Inferences should never be drawn from single Facts, or even from several Instances, especially in con- templating the inscrutable and incomprehensible Coun- cils of Providence. I should rejoice in the Prospect of the Abolition of the Slave Trade as sincerely as any Man: but I am apprehensive, if England suppresses their share of it, Napoleon at the head of France, Spain and Holland will not only monopolize it, but extend it, still more. I am affectionately yours J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy June 25. 1807. Dear Sir,-John Bunjan, if he had written my last Letter to you would have called it an history of Gods Judgments against Lyars and Libellers. Such indeed it seems to be. A great Number of others might have OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 152 been added, and two or three at least ought to have been. Phillip Freneau is one of the Number : but I know not in what Light to consider him. A Libeller he cer- tainly was not only against me but against the whole Administration of the Government at that time. But he seems to have been an instrument in the hands of others, and not well satisfied with his employment or his employers. He has retired for many years into total obscurity certainly neglected by the Party which seduced him and I hope repenting of his wickedness. If this is the Case he ought to be forgiven by all whom he has injured or offended, as he certainly has been long since by me. A certain man named Wood, undertook to write and print an History of my Administration in two octavo volumes. To be sure it was a Mass of Lyes from the first Page to the last. This Man has suffered a most righteous Punishment,-and such a Punishment as would gratify my revenge if I had any, more than the calcining of Andrew Brown or the Pistol shot of Alex- ander Hamilton : I mean a Conviction of the Falshood of his own Story, a Confession that he received his Materials from Duane, and an acknowledgment in Print that some of them were false and that no dependence could be had on any of them. The Expense of this Publication was wholly lost. By whom the loss was borne I know not. In this Instance I had compleat satisfaction. Repenting Ninevah was spared, and my resentment compleatly disarmed, though some invisible Prophet or other no doubt must have fretted. I will close the Catalogue for the present with an example of a Man who I believe has justly acquired OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 153 the honourable Distinction of being the greatest Lyar of the age. I am convinced he has written and printed more Lies than any Man in America at least. For eighteen or Nineteen years this Man, hardened in im- pudence has distinguished me with a course of his Calumnies. But what has been his reward ? I really know not a single Man of good Character who does not hold him in abhorrence, and many if not all the most sensible Men of his own Party cannot conceal their Contempt of him. He has received every Insult in the Streets, and his unconquerable Propensity to slander and his impudent refusal to give reasonable satisfaction, got him posted as a Lyar and Coward. Not having spirit to resent this himself he is said to have encouraged his son to attack Selfridge on Change who shot him upon the spot. It gives me pain to write this. But it ought to be considered by the slanderers a terrible Rebuke and Chastisement of his long contin- ued and aggravated Guilt. Dennison has got his quietus: Duane and Cheetham have theirs to come, and they certainly will come. A certain John Williams who assumed the Name of Anthony Pasquin fled from the Laugh and the Wrath of England, and coming to Boston became the Editor of the Democrat and afterwards of the Chronicle. He was soon siezed with the epidemical Distemper among Libellers, an ambition of the honour of venting Bil- lingsgate against me. But even the Democratick Party, disgusted with his vileness compelled their own Newspapers to discard him. What is become of him I know not. Gifford and Erskine had stigmatized him to such a degree that I believe his Capacity to do mis- chief is at an end. 154 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. I might have mentioned another, a David Williams, who as he told me had been upon very intimate Terms with Dr. Franklin in London. He came to see me in Grosvenor Square, but Dr. Price put me on my guard against him. He had been a Priest of the Church of England, but was unfrocked, if not excommunicated for his vices and Crimes and then became an Infidel filling his Writings with Contempt of the Christian Religion. In a Pamphlet of real Taste and Merit which he called Advice to a young Prince, he gave me a stab behind my Back with his Italian stilletto. He went to France and was praised by Madam Roland, but he was not a Man to succeed anywhere and I sup- pose made the French as weary of him as they were of Tom Pain. I could forgive these Williams's, profligate as they were to the rest of the World, for all the Injury they did me, for a smattering at least which they pos- sessed of Classical Taste and Learning. The Rear of this black Host shall be brought up by Tom Pain. You know that I made the motion for his appointment to Congress to the Secretary to the Com- mittee of foreign affairs, and carried it in opposition to Dr. Witherspoon who gave him publickly what has since been found to be his true Character, though at that time wholly unknown to me. His Gratitude to me for thus laying the foundation of his fortune, has been like all his moral sentiments and Conduct through Life. Immediately after the Publication of my " Thoughts on Government" in 1776 since known as my Letter to Mr. Wythe, Tom came to my Chambers at Mrs. Yards, to rebuke me for my Pamphlet, and especially for recommending two assemblies in the Legislature, and more pointedly still for advising to a Negative on OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 155 the Laws in the Executive authority. I vindicated my opinions in cool good humour with very solid Reasons, and then began to laugh at him in the same Straine of Pleasantry upon his ridiculous plan of Government in his Pamphlet called " common sense." You remember his Project was that afterwards adopted by Mr. Turgot, of all authority in one Center, a single Representative Assembly. I went farther and laughing in his face, asked him how he could be such a Pharisaical Hypocrite as to employ his thoughts through one other third Part of his Pamphlet, to prove from the Old Testiment that Monarchy was unlawful and solemnly prohibited by the Law of God. When he certainly must have sense enough to know that there was nothing like it in the Bible. Upon this he laughed out and said that he did not believe in the Bible, and added these memorable words " I have had thoughts of publishing my senti- ments upon Religion: but upon the whole I have con- cluded to postpone that subject to the latter part of Life." In some of his late Libells upon me, Pain alluded to this Conversation, and said that he had long suspected me, because I had found fault with his senti- ments against Monarchy in his Pamphlet, Common Sense. The Provocation, however that excited his Malice and Revenge against me, was this. He went to England in 1787 I believe and carried with him a Copy of the new Constitution of the United States. He appeared to be very proud of it, and I was frequently disgusted with his Boasts to Stockdale and De Brett that he was the author of it. De Brett published it, from a Copy furnished him as he said by the author of it. Pain told me that it was taken from a Draught of his, which he gave to Governour Morris. I thought it 156 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. would be no recommendation of it in England to have it pass for a Production of Tom Paine, a Tale which I did not believe. Pain however called several times to see me, and was invited to dine. His Conversation always disgusting was one day uncommonly vain, rude, and arrogant at Table, and in some dispute about Government he talked so much like a Villain and a Blockhead as to excite me to wrath, and I called him, not jocularly, but bona fide and in sober earnest "A Fool." Although " A Fool" he certainly was and ever has been, I must confess, that to call him so to his Face in my own house and at my own Table was such a violation of his Rights and my Duties of Hospitality, that I would very readily ask his Pardon, even at this day if his pardon was worth having. Although he ex- pressed no anger at the time he came no more to my house and I have never seen him since. He reserved his Resentment for many years, and at last poured it out in Libells. As far as I am concerned I am ready to ballance the account by setting my calling him a Fool against all the Injuries his Libells have done me. But this is a Libeller whose guilt is of a deeper crim- son than all the others. He has libelled, besides all the Souvereigns of the Earth, the Souvereign of the Uni- verse, and to him I leave his Punishment or his Pardon. I have given you a Scroul of Wretches more worthy to be immortalized in Infamy by a Dunciad than all the Heroes of Popes exquisite Satyr: but if I had the Wit, and Talents of that great Poet, I would employ them to better purpose than by writing such a Book. I am affectionately yours Dr. Rush. J. Adams. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 157 Quincy September 1. 1807. Dear Friend,-It is rare, that a Letter of yours re- mains so long upon my Table unacknowledged as has that of July 9th. Crudens Apophthegm is well worthy of your Remembrance and that of your Posterity for forty times forty years more. It is the only clue to the Labyrinth of the World; the only Key to the Riddle of the Universe. "Some Crimes are punished to prove a Providence ; others escape to teach a future state." In attempting to shorten it, I see I have weak- ened it. When General Lee called Prudence " a rascally vir- tue" his meaning was good. He meant the spirit which evades danger, when Duty requires us to face it. This is Cowardice not prudence. Or he meant that subtilty which consults private Interest, ease, or safety, by the sacrifice or the neglect of our Friends or our Country. This may be Cunning, but is more properly called Knavery than Prudence. Your Complaint against the Director might be pru- dent and necessary and probably did much good by checking abuses, notwithstanding its apparent ill suc- cess. Caveat successibus apto, quisquis ab aventu facta notanda putat. Luther and Harvey were prudent, because they saw farther into the state of things than those who reproached them. You was prudent in dis- charging your own mind and Character of all responsi- bility for the Consequences of those errors in Theory and practice, which you saw prevailing in the manage- ment of the Yellow Fever. Those who gave their advice for a defensive War in 1775 had more carefully attended to the Character and Conduct of the Govern- 158 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ment and People of England on one hand, and the People of the Colonies on the other, and had penetrated deeper into the designs and Power of both, than those who were afraid of War and advised against it. The Event has shewn that their prudence was consummate. Those who advised to early overtures of Friendship to France, had considered the State of France, humiliated by the Commerce and Naval Power of Great Britain, and the irresistable temptation which the opportunity presented to the former, to disarm the latter of half her Power and acquire a share of it to herself. They had better information and a clearer foresight, and therefore more Prudence than their Antagonists. You heard in Congress I believe in 1776 the debate between Mr. Dickinson and me upon the question of Independence. Recollect the arguments of both and then say, which of us discovered the most prudence. No honest Man can read the History of your Executorship without pro- nouncing your conduct infinitely more prudent than that of your Colleague. By Prudence I mean that deliberation and caution, which aims at no ends but good ones ; at good ones by none but fair meansand then carefully adjusts and pro- portions its good means to its good ends. Without this virtue there can be no other. Justice itself cannot exist without it. A disposition to render to every one his right is of no use without prudence to judge what is his right and skill to perform it. When in 1797, 8 and 9 I promoted the Fortification of our seaports, the Purchase of Navy Yards, the Build- ing of Navy, &c., I think I was more prudent than those who opposed me: though my Popularity was sacrificed to it, and my ennemies rose to Power by their imprudent OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 159 opposition. Their Prudence, I agree with Lee, was a rascally virtue. I am anxious to see the Progress of Burr's Tryal; not from any Love or hatred I bear to the Man, for I cannot say that I feel either. He is, as you say a Non- descript in natural History. But I think something must come out on the Tryal, which will strengthen or weaken our Confidence in the General Union. I hope something will appear to determine clearly, whether any foreign Power has or has not been tampering with our Union. If it should appear that he is guilty of Treason and in Concert with any foreign Power, you and your twelve thousand Copetitioners might petition as earnestly as you did for Fries, if I was President, and the Gallows should not lose its prey. An ignorant Idiot of a German, is a very different Being from a Vice President of the United States. The one knew not what Treason was ; the other knows all about it. The one was instigated by Virginians and Pensilvanians who deserved to be hanged much more than he did. The other could be instigated only by his own ambition, avarice or Revenge. But I hope his Innocence will be made to appear, and that he will be fairly acquitted. War? or no War? That is the question. Our Mo- narchical, Antirepublican Administration conceal from us the People all that Information that I a zealous Re- publican was always prompt to communicate ; so that we can only say " What can the matter be ?" If an express stipulation is demanded and insisted on by us, that our Flagg on board Merchantmen as well as ships of War shall protect all British subjects, Deserters from their Navy and all others, I am apprehensive the English will not agree to it. A little Prudence such as I have de- 160 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. fined above might accommodate matters. But our People will not suffer their Government to be prudent. They will clamour for the Protection and Hospitality of every foreign Miscreant. Prudence would dictate that our Government should forbid all its Naval officers to recruit a Deserter from any Nation in any Case: and if the President has not the Power Congress should enact it. But our People have such a Predilection for Run- aways of every description except Runaway Negroes that I suppose Congress would think it too unpopular, to abridge this right of Man. How we shall get out of the scrape I know not. I would not give up the Principle by any express stipula- tion. But I see no necessity for stipulation on either side. The Principle is already sufficiently established by the Law of Nations. And I think the Question might be waived by a little skill and mutual understand- ing tho' I carry the Principle by the Law of Nations, to as great an extent as Mr. Jefferson does. If the English fly into a Passion and with or without declaring War seize every ship and Cargo we have at sea, I dont believe our present Congress would declare War against them. I am sure they cannot consistently with their avowed system, which is to defend Nothing but our Farms. If our Commerce is captured and our seaports destroyed, taken or laid under contribution we shall have a scene of universal distraction: but unless the People alter their sentiments, I see no Remedy. I do not believe however that any necessity exists to give a Colour to the Pretension of the English. They have the means of preventing the desertion of their own seamen. Parting with your Daughters and their suit must have OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 161 been a tender scene in your Family, and the more affect- ing for the present critical state of our affairs. I have suffered these Pangs so often that I know how to sym- pathize with every sufferer in any such occurrences. We are so ready for War that many of our Country Towns have voted five dollars bounty and sixteen dol- lars pay a month to all their Proportion of the hundred thousand Militia. You may judge what a pleasant scene is opened to our view. We shall have the most costly army of Defenders that ever existed, in this world, or any other I believe. Your Fellow Citizens were disappointed as I am in- formed in not having you for their Moderator as they wished and intended. I think however you was right. I am as ever J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy September 1807. Dear Sir,-I want to write an Essay. Whom shall I choose for a Model ? Plutarch, old Montaigne, Lord Bacon, Addison, Johnson, or Franklin ? The last, if he had devoted his Life to the study might have equalled Montaine in essays or La Fontaine in Fables; for he was more fitted for either or both than to conduct a Nation like Rony or Colbert. I am however too round about to imitate the close, sententious manner of any of them. I am stumbled at the very Threshold. My subject is Disinterest or Disinterestedness. I must leave you to decide, for I cannot say which is the most proper word. Mirabeau said of LaFayette " Il a affiche desinteresse- ment," and he added "this never fails." You know 162 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. the sense of the word "affiche" ? It is as much as to say "he advertised" his Disinterestedness. That is equivalent to saying that he employed a Crier to pro- claim through the streets O Yes ! O Yes! O Yes ! All Manner of Persons may have the benefit of my ser- vices, Gratis, provided allways and only, that they will yield me their unlimited and unsuspecting Confidence, and make me Commander in Chief of five hundred thousand Men, and after I shall have gained a few vic- tories make me a King or an Emperor, when I shall take a fancy to be either. This has been the amount and the result of most of the Disinterestedness that has been possessed in the world. I say most, not all. There are exceptions and our Washington ought to pass for one. LaFayette imitated his example. So have Jefferson, Hamilton, Governor Strong, Fisher Ames and many others; some with and others without success. Washington had great advantages for obtaining Credence. He possessed a great Fortune, immense Lands, many Slaves, an excellent Consort, no Children. What could he desire more for Felicity here below? His Professions therefore of attachment to private Life, fondness for Agricultural employments and rural amuse- ments were easily believed: and we all agreed to be- lieve him and make the World believe him. Yet we see he constantly betrayed apprehensions, that he should not be seriously believed by the World. He was nevertheless believed, and there is not an ex- ample in History of a more universal acknowledgment of Disinterestedness in any Patriot or Hero, than there is and will be to the latest Posterity in him. LaFa- yette had not the same Felicity. His Fortune in France bore no proportion to Washingtons in America; and OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 163 Frenchmen had not the same faith with Americans, in the existence or Possibility of Disinterestedness, in any Man. His Professions therefore did not pro- duce such an enthusiasm as Washingtons. Jefferson resigned his office as Secretary of State and retired and his Friends said he had struck a great stroke to obtain the Presidency. I heard some of them say this, particularly Edmund Randoph who was his great friend. The whole Antifederal Party at that time considered this retirement as a sure and certain step towards the summit of the Pyramid; and accordingly represented him as unambitious unavaricious and perfectly dis- interested in all parts of all the states in the Union. When a Man has one of the two greatest Parties in a Nation, interested in representing him to be disinter- ested, even those who believe it to be a lie will repeat it so often to one another that at last they will seem to believe it to be true. Jefferson has succeeded, and multitudes are made to believe that he is pure Benevo- lence : that he desires no Profit: that he wants no Patronage : that, if you will only let him govern, he will rule only to make the People happy. But you and I know him to be an Intriguer. Hamilton had great dis- advantages. His original was infamous : his Place of Birth and Education were foreign Countries: his For- tune was Poverty itself: the Profligacy of his Life ; his fornications, Adulteries and his Incests were propa- gated far and wide. Nevertheless he "affiched" Dis- interestedness as boldly, as Washington. His Mirmi- dons asserted it, with as little shame, tho' not a Man of them believed it. All the rest of the World ridi- culed and despized the Pretext. He had not therefore the same success. Yet he found means to fascinate 164 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. some and intimidate others. You and I know him also to have been an Intriguer. Governor Strong retired and succeeded. He acquired the Reputation of being destitute of ambition and was chosen Governor by fair means and was a very good one. Ames miscarried. He was obnoxious to one Party, and by placing all his hopes on Hamilton, lost the Con- fidence of the soundest Portion of the other Party, and is now dying, as I fear, under the gloomy feelings of two disappointments. I have sometimes amused myself with inquiring where Washington got his system. Was it the natural Growth of his own Genius ? Had there been any examples of it in Virginia ? Instances enough might have been found in History of excellent Hypocrites, whose Concealments, Dissimulations and simulations had deceived the world for a time. And some great examples of real disinter- estedness, which produced the noblest effects and have always been acknowledged. But you know that our be- loved Washington was but very superficially read in His- tory of any age, Nation or Country. Where then did he obtain his Instruction ? I will tell you what I conjecture. Rollins ancient History you know is very generally diffused through this Country, because it has been and is in England. The Reading of most of our Men of Letters extends little further than this Work and Pri- deaux's Connection of the old and New Testament. From Rollin I suspect Washington drew his Wisdom, in a great measure. In the third Chapter of the third Book, i.e. in the second volume page forty, three, in the History of the Kingdom of the Medes, there are in the Character of Dejoces, several strokes, which are very curious, as they resemble the Politicks of so many of OLD FAMILY LETTERS. i65 our Countrymen, though the whole Character taken together is far inferiour in Purity and Magnanimity to that of Washington. " He retired from Public Business, pretending to be over fatigued with the Multitude of People that resorted to him." " His own Domestic affairs would not allow him to attend those of other People" &c. " The licentiousness which had been re- strained for some time by the Management of Dejoces, began to prevail more than ever, as soon as he had withdrawn himself from the administration of affairs, and the evil increased to such a degree, that the Medes were obliged to assemble, and deliberate upon the means of curing so dangerous a Disorder." " There are different sorts of ambition : some violent and impetuous carry every Thing as it were by storm, sticking at no kind of Cruelty or Murder: another sort more gentle, puts on an appearance of moderation and Justice, working under ground, and yet arrives at her point as surely as the other." "There is nothing certainly nobler or greater than to see a private Person eminent for his merit and virtue, and fitted by his excellent Talents for the highest em- ployments, and yet through inclination and modesty preferring a life of obscurity and Retirement; than to see such a man sincerely refuse the offer made to him, of reigning over a whole Nation, and at last consent to undergo the toil of Government, upon no other motive than that of being serviceable to his Fellow Citizens. His first disposition, by which he declares that he is acquainted with the Duties and consequently the dan- gers annexed to a Sovereign Power, shews him to have a soul more elevated and great than greatness itself; or to speak more justly a soul superiour to all ambition. 12 166 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Nothing can shew him so perfectly worthy of that im- portant Charge, as the opinion he has of his not being so, and his fears of not being equal to it. But when he generously sacrifices his own quiet and satisfaction to the welfare and tranquility of the Publick, it is plain he understands what that Sovereign Power has in it, really good, or truly valuable ; which is that it puts a Man in a Condition of becoming the Defender of his Country, of procuring it many advantages, and of re- dressing various evils; of causing Law and Justice to flourish, of bringing Virtue and Probity into reputation, and of establishing Peace and Plenty: and he comforts himself for the cares and troubles, to which he is ex- posed, by the prospects of the many Benefits resulting from them to the Publick. Such a Governor was Numa of Rome, and such have been some other Emperors, whom the People have constrained to accept the Su- preme Power." "It must be owned [I cannot help repeating it] that there is nothing nobler or greater than such a dis- position. " He commanded his subjects to build a City, mark- ing out himself the Place and Circumference of the Walls." "Within the last and smallest enclosure stood the Kings Palace. In the next were several appartments for lodging the officers. The Name of the City was Ecbatana," &c. Tom Paine represents me as exulting at Washington "Is not this great Babylon that I have builded," &c. The Scoundrel knew it was Washington and Jefferson that built this Ecbatana; and he might have known that I opposed it in every step of its Prog- ress and voted against it in Senate on all occasions. But Truth has no esteem in his eyes. No more. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 167 Tell me, has not our American System of Politicks and ambition been copied from this very passage ? If not from whence did it come ? Read the Chapter in Rollin. Washington was more sincere than Dejoces; but I am persuaded he had read this description of him. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy November 11. 1807. My dear Phylosopher and Friend,-I have, long before the receipt of your favour of the 31 of October supposed that either you were gazing at the Comet or curing the Influenza; and in either case, that you was much better employed than in answering my idle Let- ters. Pray ! have our Astronomers at Phyladelphia, observed that stranger in the Heavens ? Have they noted its Bearings and Distances, its Course and Progress ? whence it came and whither it goes ? Or are Astronomers in America as rare as they are in other parts of the World ? Franklin has several times related to me an Anecdote concerning Astronomers in Eng- land. Government had occasion to send an Astronomer abroad upon some service. The Ministry asked the Royal Society to recommend one : they appointed a Committee to enquire for a suitable Character. Frank- lin who was one of the Committee, said that he and all his Colleagues, upon looking over the List of the Society were astonished to find how few had ever studied that Science. I am very much afraid that our scientific so- cieties in America, are at least as deficient in Numbers of Students of the Universe and the sum of Things as England. Have our Physicians in Phyladelphia made 168 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. any new observations on that horrid endemical Distem- per that has employed you so much. It seems to have become a Complaint of every year, and of two or three times in a year. This last has been the most universal and the most irksome and the most unmanageable of any I ever knew. I presume the Lawyer whom you mention has founded his opinion upon that of Rochefaucault, Mandeville, Hobbs, Machiavel, and I had almost said Tacitus, that there is no such thing in Nature, actual or possible as a disinterested action, and that the Testator must have been non Compos, when he supposed such a Thing pos- sible. Brother Lawyer! thou art not sound. Thou hast no Faith in Virtue! Butler, Hutchinson or even Shaftesbury might have taught thee Better. Perhaps you will say that God alone can judge, what is or is not a disinterested action. Though this is true in an absolute sense, yet Men can judge according to their best information and discernment, and if the Testator made his Executor the judge, he must determine ac- cording to his own understanding and Conscience. I should deprecate a solemn Judgment of any Court, that such a Legacy was void. Self taught or Book learned in the Arts, our Hero was much indebted to his Talents for "his immense elevation above his Fellows." Talents ! you will say, what Talents? I answer, i. An handsome Face. That this is a Talent, I can prove by the authority of a thousand Instances in all ages: and among the rest Madame DuBarry who said Le veretable Royaute est la Beaute. 2. A tall stature, like the Hebrew sover- eign chosen because he was taller by the Head than the other Jews. 3. An elegant Form. 4. Graceful OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 169 Attitudes and Movements. 5. A large imposing For- tune consisting of a great landed Estate left him by his Father and Brother, besides a large Jointure with his Lady, and the Guardianship of the Heirs of the great Custis Estate, and in addition to all this, immense Tracts of Land of his own acquisition. There is noth- ing, except bloody Battles and splendid Victories to which Mankind bow down with more reverence than to great fortune. They think it impossible that rich Men especially immensely rich Men, should submit to the trouble of serving them but from the most benev- olent and disinterested Motives. Mankind in general are so far from the opinion of the Lawyer, that there are no disinterested actions, that they give their esteem to none but those which they believe to be such. They are oftener deceived and abused in their Judgments of disinterested Men and actions than in any other, it is true. But such is their Love of the Marvellous, and such their admiration of uncommon Generosity that they will believe extraordinary pretensions to it and the Pope says Si bonus Populus vult decipi, decipiatur. Washington however did not deceive them. I know not that they gave him more credit for disinterestedness than he deserved, though they have not given many others so much. 6. Washington was a Virginian. This is equivalent to five Talents. Virginian Geese are all Swans. Not a Bearne in Scotland is more national, not a Lad upon the High Lands is more clannish than every Virginian I have ever known. They trumpet one another with the most pompous and mendacious Pane- gyricks. The Phyladelphians and New Yorkers who are local and partial enough to themselves are meek and modest in Comparison with Virginian Old Dominionism. 170 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Washington of course was extolled without bounds. 7. Washington was preceeded by favourable Anec- dotes. The English had used him ill in the expedition of Braddock. They had not done Justice to his Bravery and good Council. They had exaggerated and misrepre- sented his defeat and Capitulation ; which interested the Pride as well as compassion of Americans in his favour. President Davis had drawn his Horroscope by calling him "that Heroic Youth, Col. Washington." Mr. Lynch of South Carolina told me before we met in Congress in 1774 that "Colonel Washington had made the most eloquent speech that ever had been spoken upon the Controversy with England, viz That if the English should attack the People of Boston, he would raise a thousand Men at his own expense and march at their head to New England to their aid." Several other favourable stories preceeded his appearance in Congress and in the Army. 8. He possessed the Gift of Silence. This I esteem as one of the most precious Talents. 9. He had great Self Command. It cost him a great exertion some- times, and a constant Constraint, but to preserve so much equanimity as he did, required a great Capacity. 10. Whenever he lost his temper as he did sometimes, either Love or fear in those about him induced them to conceal his Weakness from the World. Here you see I have made out ten Talents without saying a word about Reading, Thinking or writing, upon all which subjects you have said all that need be said. You see I use the word Talents in a larger sense than usual, comprehending every advantage. Genius, Experience, Learning, Fortune, Birth, Health are all Talents, though I know not how, the word has been lately confined to the faculties of the Mind. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 171 Did not Ratcliff Give a Library to the University of Oxford ? He had Wit at will. Riding one day by a new brick building, he saw the scaffolding give way under a Mason who was laing Bricks and the work which had been laid following the scaffold, buried the workman and crushed him to death. Ratcliff cried out before the Man or the Bricks had reached the ground " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord for they cease from their Labours, and their works shall follow them." A thousand other stories are told of his wit. Whether he read or not he affected to be a profound Metaphisician. I read in England, at Mr. William Vossalls of Clapham, in Manuscript, a Demonstration of Atheism written by this Dr. Ratcliff, as abstruse and profound as the writings of Condorcet. The writer at least seemed to think it profound, or to wish that others might think it so; but it was a miserable piece of Sophistry, worthy of Diderot. I admire the subject of your intended Lecture. A story goes of our Universalist Murray, It is said that more than twenty years ago he preached upon the sub- ject of Animals in a future State and asserted that they would all be saved, even down to the Ladies Lapdogs. He told the Ladies they need not fear the loss of their favourite animals, for he could assure them that even Bounce should wag his Tail in Glory. I once told Murray the story and asked him if it was true. Ah ! said Murray, you will hear a thousand such stories about me. Pray cannot you contrive to get the Trees and Plants into a future state too ? I should like to think that Groves and Forests, Apple, Peach, Pear, and Plumb trees oranges &c., might be seen in the abodes of the 172 OLD FA MIL Y LETTERS, blessed. The Earl of Shelbourne's Bishop Watson, while he was still a Chymist, which I wish he had been to this day, printed a very respectable Pamphlet, to shew that Vegetables were animated. He did not pub- lish it, but I made interest enough with him to obtain a Copy of it. Who knows but vegetables and animals are all in a course to become rational and immortal. There is room enough in the universe. Hershell digs up starrs in the heavens, fixed starrs, all suns with Planetts, Satilites and Comets, layer after layer and stratum under stratum, ten million times faster and more numerous than my Men dig Potatoes out of the Earth. Why should we set limits then to our benevo- lence, or the predominant benevolence in the Universe. Let Sensibility, Animation, Intelligence, Virtue and Happiness be universal, with all my heart. Think not that I am laughing. I assure you I soberly approve your subject and your manner of treating it as far as you have communicated it to me. Now for that resolute word " No." I ought to have said No to the appointment of Washington, and Ham- ilton and some others : and yes to the appointment of Burr, Muhlenburg and some others. I ought to have appointed Lincoln and Gates and Knox and Clinton &c. But if I had said yes and no in this manner the Senate would have contradicted me in every Instance. You ask what would have been the Consequence. I answer Washington would have been chosen President at the next election, if he had lived, and Hamilton would have been appointed Commander in Chief of the Army. This would have happened as it was, if Wash- ington had lived and this was intended. With all my Ministers against me, a great Majority of the Senate, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 173 and of the House of Representatives, I was no more at Liberty than a Man in a Prison, chained to the floor and bound hand and foot, an Idea that was once held up by a Parson Burr of Worcester an ancestor of Aaron as I suppose, as an illustration of human Liberty. I was perfectly at Liberty to stay there. I have given you Paradoxes enouo-h under this word No. But I will o justify any of them if you desire it. Washington ought either to have never gone out of Public Life, or he ought never to have come in again. I have a great Curiosity to know what Richard saw and heard at Richmond which it is not lawfull to tell. Symptoms of a Corruption allarming to the Friends of national Liberty appear in every Part of our Country. They will have their usual course and their usual ter- mination. We are like other Men. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Deer. 28. 1807. My dear Philosopher and Friend,-I thank you for your printed Lecture on the Humanity, CEconomy and other Virtues which require of us more attention to our Domestick animals and especially to their diseases. We see our Horses, horned Cattle, Sheep, Swine, and other species as well as our Cats and Dogs, sick or wounded and no body knows what to do with them or for them, so that a broken bone or a fit of sickness is almost certain death. The animal economy in all of them is in general I suppose nearly the same in them as in us, and the Science of Anatomy and Medicine might be studies in the same manner in their Cases and in ours. 174 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. The Clamour in your City is too late. Pensilvania may thank herself for the evil she feels. She has not only established the permanent residence of Congress at Washington but she has established a perpetuity of absolute Power at the southward of Potomack under which, however she may complain, she must suffer. The Union is not a pallace of Ice, nor a Castle of Glass. There must be an intense heat to melt it, and very hard blows to break it. One war will not dissolve it. Deep and Strong are its roots in the Judgment and hearts of the People. A dozen Hamiltons and Burrs will be killed in Duels or hanged before the Union will be broken. Washington believed bona fide that the Federal City would be the Nexus utriusque Mundi, and bind together not only the Northern and Southern States, but the Transalleganian with the Atlantic States. How far his Interest and the consid- eration of the rise in the value of his Lands might influence him in the formation of this opinion I leave to the Searcher of all hearts. My Judgment was in favour of an established Residence at Philadelphia, and I con- sequently voted against every Project of a permanent Residence and a federal City, till Mr. Robert Morris deserted me, and left me in a minority or rather made a Majority in Senate, and left me without a vote. " Great Abilities," " extraordinary Abilities," "great Talents," "Brilliant Talents," "Splendid Talents," "Extraordinary Man," "The most extraordinary Man that this or any other age has produced," "Acute and elegant Mind," "able and eminent Man," "Over- whelming Eloquence, &c., &c., &c.," are the modest epithets, which became the commonplace expressions concerning every Virginian from Patrick Henry and OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 175 R. H. Lee down to J. Randolph and Mr. Munroe. Huzza for Virginia! Knowing as I did the humanity, delicacy and Piety of your sentiments on the subject of Duels I felt so much distress for you and your Family that I could not write you for fear of renewing your Grief. I rejoice with you in the alleviations of it you have received. Your son was remarked when he was in Boston for his manly discretion among his Brother Officers, Instances of which were repeated to me, by a Gentleman who was once present and observed it with pleasure. The Custom is too much considered as a Law especially in the Army and Navy. It is certainly a remnant of a barbarous superstition but whether the world will ever be rid of it, I know not. The Resemblance you remark between the arguments in 1774 and 1775 and this time really exists. Who will argue and what will be the arguments in favour of the Sovereign of the World to apply to Napoleon, the epithet which Dryden applies to Alexander, in his Feast ? The Dutch once declared War against Eng- land, France, and Spain all at once, and fought them all with great Intrepidity. Shall we follow their example ? fight them all with 240 Gun boats ? I wish you would cure our Rulers of the Hydro- phobia ? Yet, if they should get well of it now, it seems to be almost too late. I suppose they have thought with Gen. Lee that Prudence was a rascally Virtue. I wish their Inattention and want of Foresight may not expose them to Capture and Imprisonment by the Enemy, as his did him. If ever a Nation was guilty of imprudence, ours has been so in making a Naval Force and maritime preparations unpopular. 176 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. But any thing, no matter what, to turn J. A. out and come under the Dominion of Virginia. Huzza again for Virginia! Hail Massachusetts, New York and Pensilvania! Sacrifice loyally your Commerce and clank your Chains in harmonious Concert with Virginia ! She tells you that Commerce produces money, money Luxury and all three are incompatible with Republican- ism ! Virtuous, simple, frugal Virginia hates Money and wants it only for Napoleon, who desires it only to establish Freedom through the World ! My Friend the times are too serious. Instead of the most enlightened People, I fear we Americans shall soon have the Character of the silliest People under Heaven. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy, Feb. 25. 1808. My dear Philosopher,-Your two last Letters have puzzled me. In one you tell me that your Citizens are clamourous against the Residence of Congress at Washington. Now Washington was the Father of the Columbian Territory, the City of Washington and the Residence of Congress in it; and Washington, Jefferson and L'Enfant were the Triumvirate who planned the City, the Capitol and the Princes Palace. In your last Feb. 18 you tell me, that your Citizens are making preparations for celebrating a kind of adoration to Divus Washington. How can these two Clamours be reconciled? The Celebration of the Birthday I can account for, by Blounts Motion to repeal the Funding system, because Hamiltons adulation can be supported OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 177 only by Washington's adoration. Another obvious Motive is to cast disgrace upon Washingtons two suc- cessors, Adams and Jefferson. Similar Motives have produced a Phenomenon in Boston. On the fourth of July Washingtons Picture is placed behind the*Table of the Principal Magistrates, Hamiltons opposite to him in the most conspicuous spot in the whole Hall while the Pictures of Samuel Adams and John Hancock are crowded away in two obscure corners. This is Fanuel Hall which ought to be as sacred in Boston, as the Temple of Jupiter was on the Capitol Hill in Rome made the Head Quarters of Fornication, Adultery, Incest, Libelling and electioneering Intrigue. Yet Boston is the head Quarters of good Principles. One of the most superb Blocks of Brick Buildings too, erected lately by the richest Man in the Town is called Hamilton Place, and twenty other proud Palaces deserve the name as well. The Clamours against the Embargo are no doubt intended to disgrace Jeffersons administration. France and England had embargoed our Trade before we em- bargoed it. No prudent Merchant would send a ship to sea, unless she had the Mark of one or other of the Beasts, perhaps both, for some are capable of making their Court to both. My old acquaintance King George has broke his word. He promised me he would be the last to dis- turb our Independence. But his Tyrannical Proclama- tion for impressing seamen from our Merchant Ships is a flagrant disturbance of our Independence. He has selected the hereditary Remnant of the old Butran Administration for his Ministry and they are reviving his old feelings. We must revive ours. 178 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Charge as much Ignorance, Folly and Pride as you please upon the City of Washington. But lay none of it to me. Not one shilling was spent upon it by me. I could not get Wires put up to my Bells when I lived in the Royal Palace. You ask how different were our Feelings and Con- duct in 1774? Different indeed. We then loved Lib- erty better than Money. Now we love Money better than Liberty. Then Liberty meant security for Life, Liberty Property and Character. Now the word has changed its meaning and signifies Money, electioneer- ing, Tricks and Libels, and perhaps the Protection of French Armies and British Fleets. When my Parson says "Let us sing to the praise and Glory of G. W." your Church will adopt a new Collect in its Liturgy and say " Sancte Washington ora pro nobis." But you know that all this adulation in the Leaders of it, is sheerly hypocritical. It would have added at Washington a Mausoleum of an hundred feet square at the base, and an hundred feet high to the other Monuments of "Ignorance, Folly and Pride" to be left in that place when Congress shall remove from it. I told my Friend Powell of Virginia at my own Table, that if that Bill for a Mausoleum passed I should be obliged to do the most unpopular act of my whole un- popular Life, by sending it back with a Negative and Reasons. Oh ! said Powell I hope not. I hope that when Anarchy shall invade us, it will stumble on that Rock and break its shins. At the time of Hamiltons Death, the Federal Papers avowed that Hamilton was the soul and Washington the Body, or in other words that Washington was the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 179 painted wooden head of the ship and Hamilton the Pilot and steersman. Thus the World goes, has ever gone, and ever will go. And so let it go. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Dear Rush,-I have your favour of the 5th. My dear Mrs. Adams bids me present her friendly regards to you and Mrs. Rush and all your family, and to say to you that she has read your Letter with pleasure except- ing what relates to a Gentleman for whom she had be- fore a great Esteem, and all she can say upon that subject is that she wished she had not read it. In my jocular prayer to the saint I meant no re- flection or insinuations against your Church or any other. I shall esteem you the more for having become a Christian on a large scale. Bigotry, Superstition and enthusiasm on religious subjects I have long since sett at Defyance. I have attended public Worship in all Countries and with all sects and believe them all much better than no religion, though I have not thought my- self obliged to believe all I heard. Religion I hold to be essential to Morals. I never read of an irreligious Character in Greek or Roman History, nor in any other History, nor have I known one in Life, who was not a Rascal. Name one if you can living or dead. I shall be very glad to receive your Creed as you give me encouragement to hope. You have heard the mercantile Maxim "If it is Quincy April 18. 1808. 180 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. necessary in the Course of commerce to send a ship through the fire, you must run the risque of burning your sails." Not all the Politicians of the World, the Pharisees, the Jesuits, the Bramins, the Druids, the Romans, the Carthaginians, the Britons or the French, have ever employed more Subtilty in Negotiation than Merchants. We may depend upon it that every device that human wit can conceive will be employed to evade the embargo. The 37 Cargoes of Flour at the Havanna therefore are no surprise to me. I fear that a practice and habit of smuggling too, will be introduced by this irksome stagnation. Tell Mrs. Rush that Mrs. A. and Mr. A. felicitate themselves in Retirement but not much for that retire- ment. We have both been enough at sea to know that the Midshipman and even the Passengers and common sailors in a leaky, crazy ship in a Hurricane in the Gulph Stream, are as anxious as the Captain and the Helmsmen. The higher Duty and the greater vigilance and activity, are a relief from terror, rather than an in- crease of it. I know not that I was ever more attentive to public affairs, or more concerned about them. You and I have been deceived in conceiving too high an opinion of the sense and Honesty of our Nation. We are driven up in a corner, can retreat no further. Bayonetts and cannon mouths are at our Bosoms. We are insulted and injured, ridiculed and scorned by the Belligerent Powers. We have no Defence prepared by sea and Land; and all this because Tench Coxe and a few other foolish knaves like him would have it so, and the People would say amen. Mr. Jefferson has reason to reflect upon himself. How he will get rid of his remorse in his Retirement I OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 181 know not. He must know that he leaves the Govern- ment infinitely worse than he found it and that from his own error or Ignorance. I wish his Telescopes and Mathematical Instruments, however, may secure his Felicity. But if I have not mismeasured his ambition, he will be uneasy and the sword will cutt away the scabbard. As he has however a good Taste for Letters and an ardent curiosity for Science, he may and I hope will find amusement and consolation from them ; for I have no resentment against him, though he has honoured and salaried almost every villain he could find who had been an enemy to me. Our People will not suffer the Constitution to operate according to its true Principles, spirit and design. The Presidents office ought to mediate between the rich and the Poor. But neither will have it so, each Party will have the Executive, and Judiciary too wholly and exclu- sively to itself. The Consequence has been and will be that our Government is a Game of Leap frog. Once in a dozen years there will be a Revolution in Adminis- tration. The Democrats will reign for about that Period, and make the President their slave, then the Aristocrats will leap over their backs and shoulders, and reign in their turn making the President their Machine. I think instead of opposing systematically any administration, running down their Characters and opposing all their Measures right or wrong, we ought to support every administration as far as we can in Justice. For my part I always thought and am still determined to support every administration whenever I think them in the right. I care not whether they call me Federalist, Jacobin or Quid. That elegant Monument which your Friendship has 13 182 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. erected to the Memory of Dr. Rebman has given much pleasure to your Friend and servant J. Adams. P.S.-I have omitted to answer your close question, " Whether such a Country is worthy of the Patriotism of honest Men ?" I answer, such a Country is as worthy as any other Country. Our People are like other People. Our obligations to our Country never cease but with our Lives. We ought to do all we can. Instead of being Frenchmen or Englishmen ; Federalists or Jacobins, we ought to be Americans and exert every nerve to convince and persuade our Country to conquer its sordid stinginess, to defend our exposed Cities and prepare a Naval Force. This must be our ultimate re- sort. The miserable struggle for place and power, must be laid aside, and heart and hand united for defence. The Judgments of heaven cannot be averted, but Dr. Rush can mitigate the yellow Fever, and he can do much to guard against that avarice which is our national sin, which is most likely to draw down Judg- ment. An Aristocracy of Wealth, without any Check but a Democracy of Licentiousness is our Curse. I wish that Aristocracy was in a hole, guarded by Her- cules with his Club on one side and an honest People with their Millions of hands on the other. The eternal Intrigues of our monied and Landed and Slaved Aris- tocracy, are and will be our ruin. I will be neither Aristocrat nor Democrat, without a Mediator between the two. With such a Mediator I will be both. Answer me candidly to this. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 183 Quincy June 20. 1808. My dear Physical and Medical Philosopher,- I give you this Title for the present only. I shall scarcely allow you to be a political, moral, or Christian Philosopher, till you retract some of the Complaints, Lamentations, Regrets and Penitences in your letter of the 13th. But more of this presently. Mr. John Reed, the first Lawyer who left a great Reputation in our State, in the administration of Gov- ernor Shirley was a Councillor, or in the style of that day, one of his Majesty's Honourable Council, accord- ing to our Charter. Shirley proposed a Law, that was inconsistent with Liberty and the public good, and Reed who was a Man of great Integrity and Fortitude, as well as Talents opposed it with such unanswerable rea- sons as prevailed with the Council to reject the Bill. Shirleys sychophants, a numerous host, were in such a rage, that at the next election they exerted themselves in Caucus's and Intrigues so successfully that they turned out Father Reed, as he was then called. After the Result of the Election was declared, the old Gentle- man coming down the stairs from the Council Chamber met one of his Friends and said to him " I am dead, and it is well with me." My son may say the same for the same reasons. Our good old Massachusetts has undergone an in- stantaneous Conversion. Last year the Federalists were about Ninety in four hundred and fifty. This year they have a Majority, of about the number of the Boston seats. Have you never known or read of a good, sober honest religious Man, who had passed his days in general in rational Piety and steady virtue, who fall- 184 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ing in his old age into bad Company had become a little debauched both with Wine and Women, till all of a sudden some great Calamity befalling him he was in- stantaneously converted into a flaming Fanatic and be- came a furious Persecutor of all his old sober Friends. Just so our good old Massachusetts, for a few years past has been declining into the rankest democratical Debauchery ; but the embargo, like a Plague, Pestilence or Famine, has awakened her from her vicious dream and turned her into a furious persecuting enthusiast for hyperfederalism. Now sir, for your Groans. You and I in the Revo- lution acted from Principle; we did our Duty, as we then believed, according to our best Information, Judg- ment and Consciences. Shall we now repent of this ? God forbid ! No ! If a banishment to Cayenne, or to Bottany Bay or even the Guillotine were to be the necessary Consequences of it to us, we ought not to repent. Repent? This is impossible: how can a Man repent of his virtues ? Repent of your sins, and Crimes and willfull Follies, if you can recollect any: but never repent of your Charities, of your Benevolences, of your Cures in the Yellow Fever, no, nor of the innumerable hazards of your Life you have run, in the prosecution of your duty. I can say with you, that I do not regret my sons re- jection from the next Senate nor his Resignation of this. His Resignation I fully approve. A station in public Life is not desirable at this time, though perhaps a Man ought not to refuse it, when called to it. You ask, in case of a Rupture with Britain or France, what shall we fight for ? I know of no better answer to give than this, to get rid of the embargo. This ob- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 185 ject as I understand the Politicks of the times is worth a war with all the World. But where are we to trade, when we are at war with all the world ? My friend! Our Country is in Masquerade! No Party, No Man dares to avow his real sentiments. All is disguise, Visard, Cloak. The people are totally puz- zled and confounded. They cannot penetrate the views, designs or objects of any Party or any Individual. If I was only forty year old, I would as I did at that age, sett all Disguise and fear at Defyance, and once more lead my Country. But now it would be Madness in me to attempt any Thing. I have not any Confidence in my own Judgment. My Strength of Body and Capacity of application to Business or study, are gone. But such is the Constitution of my Mind that I cannot avoid forming an opinion. It is happy and fortunate I believe for my Country, that I have no call to explain myself. But I have an opinion that there is but one course for my Country to pursue in the present Crisis. That course I would indicate to you if I could converse with you in secret Confidence, but I ought not to put it on Paper. I even doubt whether you would agree with me. I know not whether one Man in the Union would support me. Indeed I fear that the critical moment is past. Our Constitution operates as I always foresaw and predicted it would. It is a Game at Leap-frog. The Federalists ruled for twelve years, by very small Ma- jorities : then the Republicans leaped over their heads and shoulders and have reigned seven years : it is even uncertain whether their Dominion will last another year: but every appearance indicates that it will not continue beyond twelve years, when the Federalists will leap over 186 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. their heads and shoulders again. Thus from twelve years to twelve years we are to have a total revolution of Parties : and the Principle seems to be established on both sides that the Nation is never to be governed by the Nation; but the whole is to be exclusively gov- erned by a Party. Integrity is as Tacitus says Certis- simum exitium, most certain destruction, and Imparti- ality is Treason. You ask "shall we rally round the standard of a popular Chief?" I know not whom you mean. I am determined to rally round the standard of the President, as far as I can in honour, whether Mr. Pinkney, Mr. Clinton or Mr. Madison be the Man. I will engage in no systematical and universal opposition to any Man. We must rally round our Government or be undone. Since the death of Washington, you say there has been no center of Union. But what Center was Washing- ton ? He had unanimous votes as President, but the two Houses of Congress and the great Body of the People were more equally divided under him than they ever have been since. Jonathan Dickenson Serjeant and Dr. Hutchinson would have turned him out of his House, if the yellow fever had not been sent to save him, and a Majority of the People of the Union would then have applauded Genet, untill John Quincy Adams turned the Tide of popular fury and Delusion. Never was Man under greater obligation to another, than Washington was to that youth, and no Man was more sensible of it, than Washington himself, as I can prove by indisputable evidence. Commerce and Wealth have produced Luxury, Avarice and Cowardice. Luxuria incubuit, victamque reluscitur Britaniam. Our bedollared Country has be- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 187 come a Miser and a Spendthrift, alieni appotens sui profusus. Former ages have never discovered any Remedy against the universal Gangrene of avarice in commercial Countries, but setting up Ambition as a Rival to it. Military Honours have excited Ambition, to struggle against Avarice, till Military Honours have degenerated into hereditary Dignities. You and I have no Military Ambition, nor any great Wealth, and both of us wish that Ambition and Avarice may be restrained by Law, and be subservient to Liberty. But Nature will have her Course and Corruption is coming in like a flood, accellerated by English Influence in the greatest degree and by French Influence in a very considerable Degree, and still more by the eternal internal struggle between Debtor and Creditor, which has overturned every Republic from the Beginning of time. You have puzzled me with an enigma, which I pray you to explain. You say the Quids have united with the Democrats in favour of Snyder, because J. Q. Adams was left out of the Senate of U. S. Pray un- riddle this. What connection could there be between my sons election and the election of your Governor ? Did my old Friend McKean and his whimsicals whom you call Quids consider J. Q's rejection as a Tryumph of Republicanism, and take Courage from it to join in it ? or as a Tryumph of Federalism, and intimidated by it join the Republicans to check the Progress of it. I have not Penetration enough to see through it. Family regards as usual. Dr. Rush. J. Adams. 188 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy July 25. 1808. Dear Benjamin,-Handsome Bradford of thy City, allarmed me the other day at our Athenaeum in Boston, by telling me, that Dr. Rushes Business had amazingly encreased and was encreasing. Knowing thine ardor in thy Profession, I was apprehensive that thy zeal for the health of the sick would soon eat thee up, and con- sequently that thine Ether would escape from this of Humanity to the Regions of Divinity before mine. As Charity " commence par soi-meme," I charge thee from regard to my own self as well as thine own self to take care of thine own health, in preference to that of any of thy Patients. But to change the style a little-not much. I look at the Presidential election as I do at the squabbles of little Girls, about their Dolls and at the more serious wrangles of little Boys which sometimes come to blows, about their Rattles and Whistles. It will be a mighty Bustle about a mighty Bauble. In one of your Letters you say that one half the Peo- ple think the Government too strong and the other half too weak. The Truth is it is too strong already, with- out being just. In the hands of Aristocrats it has been too strong without being sufficiently wise or just: in the hands of Democrats it has been too strong without being either wise or just. Wisdom and Justice can never be promoted till the Presidents office instead of being a Doll and a Whistle, shall be made more independent and more respectable : capable of mediating between two infuriated Parties. Till this is done, the Govern- ment will be ride and tye, a game at leap frog, one Party once in eight or twelve years leaping over the head and 189 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. shoulders of the other, kicking and spurring when it rides. If the President must be the head of a Party, and not the President of the Nation, we have no hope of long escaping a civil Contest. You justly observe that the embargo operates in favour of a Revolution of Power. That is the Embargo will enable the Aristocrats to leap over the heads and shoulders of the Democrats, as Taxes &c. enabled the Democrats eight years ago to leap over theirs. But if the Aristocrats get the Power how will they use it? Will they submit to the Proclamations, Orders in Coun- cil &c. of the English, and go to war with France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Italy, Germany, Prussia, Denmark & Russia. Such a war I think would be worse than the em- bargo. Though my system has always been Neutrality and I have sacrificed every Thing to it yet I have always been convinced that it was our true Policy to preserve as long as possible a good understanding with France, and that if we were driven to extremities, we had better preserve Peace with France. Notwithstanding this I would not bear Insult and Injury from France. If we get into a Quarrel with France, and the war Passions are once excited between our People and the People of France and her allies, our Presidents will be mere stat- holders danced upon British Wires. All Naval De- fence will be discountenanced as it has been in Holland since King William, and we shall have no Commerce but the Miserable Pittance which British Avarice will allow us. Though the Life of Hamilton will be a made up Pict- ure, like Dean Swifts Ccelia, and Rags will be contrived to prop the flabby dugs lest down they drop, I shall be OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 190 very glad to see it. I hope his famous Letter which produced the Army, the Sedition Law &c., in which he recommends an Army of fifty thousand Men, ten thou- sand of them Horse, will not be omitted. The Death of Dr. Shippen has revived many scenes in my Mind of ancient times. In more modern days he was too much of a Virginian to care much about me. His son too, became a Democratic Dunce, though he had been under obligations to me in England as another Father. I thank you for the two Pamphlets. Mr. Cuthberts is ingenious but I do not agree with him. Your Medi- cal Department shines with great Glory. I wish ours at Cambridge would emulate you but I despair of it. Mark I do not wish yours worse, but ours better than it is. So I am not guilty of envy. My Family all salute yours, all yours. The Coup de Theatre. The Aristocratical Tricks played off in the Funerals of Washington, Hamilton and Ames are all in Concert with the Lives and Histories written and to be written, all calculated like Drums and Trumpets and Fifes in an Army to drown the unpopularity of speculations, Banks Paper Money and mushroom fortunes. You see through these Masks and Veils and Cloaks, but the People are dazzled and blinded by them and so will Posterity be. The Aristocrats know how to dupe the Democrats better than the latter to deceive the former, though both will lie with the most invincible front. Adieu J. Adams. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 191 I have read Spences " Britain independent of Com- merce." Who could have expected to see the Doctrine of Artaxerxes, Aristotle, Mr. Lock and Dr. Quesnay con- jured up by a British Ministry to reconcile the People to their Measures ? The Principle seems to be the same with Harringtons political Axiom, that Mankind are led by the Teeth and that Dominion follows the Ballance of Property in Land. The foundation is true, but the superstructure erroneous. Agriculture must be en- couraged by Manufactures, and both by Commerce. The three by their reciprocal Action and Reaction on each other, produce national Prosperity. I doubt how- ever whether we for want of Manufactures, can say that America is independent of Commerce, so truly as the English. This our beloved Country, my dear Friend is indeed in a very dangerous situation. It is between two great fires in Europe, and between two ignited Parties at home, smoking, sparkling and flaming ready to burst into a Conflagration. In this state of embarrassment Confusion and uncertainty, no Genius appears : no com- prehensive mind : rio exalted Courage. What shall we do ? What will become of us ? To you and me these Things are of little Consequence. But we have Chil- dren and Grand Children and shall soon have Great Grand Children. And indeed the Nation ought all to be dear to us, and tenderly cherished as our offspring. The embargo is a cowardly measure. We are taught to be cowards both by Federalists and Republicans. Our Gazettes and Pamphlets tell us that Bonaparte is omnipotent by land, that Britain is omnipotent at sea : that Bonaparte will conquer England, and command all the British Navy, and send I know not how many hun- 192 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. dred thousand soldiers here and conquer from New Orleans to Passamaquoddy. Though every one of these Bugbears is an empty Phantom, yet the People seem to believe every article of this bombastical Creed and tremble and shudder in Consequence. Who shall touch these blind eyes ? The American People are not Cowards nor Traitors. J. A. Dr. Rush. Quincy August 31. 1808. My dear Sir,-Instead of preparing for Commence- ment I am answering your delicious Letter of the 24th. But where to begin or where to end ! I will follow your own order. If I had ever heard that a Pen of Tacitus had been preserved among the Reliques of antiquity, I should swear you had stolen it to draw the Character of the most conspicuous moral political and military Phenom- enon of the age. I tremble not however at his name. All the ships in Europe he can procure, could not trans- port an Army to hurt us. I see in him a Conqueror, who resembles Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet and Kouli Khan and the vices, Follies and Madness, as well as the Genius, Courage and desperation, which belonged to them all. In attention to the Arts and Sciences he is equal to any of them. His Religion and Morality are very like that of all of them. I see nothing in him so very much superior to Dumourier or Pichegru, or several others, of the Generals now under him. The Impetus of the Revolution, setting all things at Defy- ance operated like a Steam Engine to bend the Char- acter of the french soldiers to the severest military dis- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 193 cipline the world ever witnessed. All this was done and the french Nation and armies formed by the national assemblies and their Committees to the most absolute submission before he came to the Command. With these instruments he has defended himself against a series of Coalitions and Combinations against him. In one Point he has been more hardy and impudent than Caesar or Cromwell: he has thrown off a Masque which they were obliged to wear and openly avowed his personal and Family ambition. But what is he now ? I believe him to be the most miserable Individual of the human species. He must be conscious that he is brandishing a Beetle round his head upon the Pinnacle of a Steeple. His whole system must crumble under him. He is con- tending with England for a superiority of Power, a glit- tering object for which the English and French Nations have incessantly wrestled and fought for many ages. It is in vain to say the English are acting in self defence, for so is Napoleon, and he is in more danger than the English. The Truth is the English are contending to be the dom- inant Power of the World, or if you will for universal empire as much as the French. The Trident of Nep- tune is the Scepter of the World ; and that unlimited Despotism on the ocean for which Britain avowedly and openly contends would be a more dangerous Domina- tion over the civilized World than any that Napoleon ever can accomplish. What is now the Power of Napoleon? Compare it with that of the House of Austria under Charles the 5th. and his successors. The Contention between the House of Austria under Charles and the House of Bourbon under Francis kept Mankind in a fire as consuming as this in our day. Charles as ambitious and restless as 194 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Napoleon ran about Europe by sea and Land setting up and pulling down as notably as the Frenchman or Corsican. No longer ago than 1630 The Successor of Charles was Master of Spain, Portugal all the Treasures of America, the Low Countries, the Milanese, the King- dom of Naples, of Bohemia, of Hungary, and even Germany was become his patrimony. All this was a greater Power by far than Napoleon now possesses. The Cry of universal Empire was as loud then as it is now. « Compare the Power of France now to that of Louis 14th. who was hated and dreaded by all Europe as much as Bona is now, and whose armies of 400 thousand Men bore a greater proportion to the standing armies of Europe then, than those of France do now, and whose Generals Conde, Turenne, Villars, Luxembourg and many others were equal to any of Napoleons. Not to trouble you to read many books to refresh your memory, only run over the 14th. Chapter of Voltaires age of Louis 14 and see the Pride of the Monarch and the terror of the world. His Navy was then terrible even to the English, and his armies invincible till Marlborough checked him as I hope some gallant English or Spanish officer will the Napoleons. Compare the Napoleons with the Capitian Rou in the time of Charlemaine who had as vast views as much skill in arms and Policy and was as cruel as the present Hairbrain. There are so many in Philadelphia, tho not more than in N. Y., Baltimore, or Boston whose Principles I thought not very generous that I can not guess who was the Blockhead who changed an orthodox opinion that I was a weak Man for the heretical conceit that I am a wise OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 195 one, at a time when he can have no temptation to it. My own opinion has always agreed with his old opinion, and I am not about to change it, settled more than half a Century ago upon a philosophical Investigation of my Perceptions, Retentions, Judgment, Reason, Passions, Imaginations and Prejudices, in complaisance to him. Whoever he is I pronounce him a weak Man too. He never was capable of understanding even me. I never was for fixing a "perpetual hereditary Chief Magis- trate." This will never be done. Whenever, if ever, there is one such Magistrate, there will be two or three. The U. S. will be divided into two or three sections, and all of them become vassalls to Uropean Powers. Call them statholders if you will. Another Thing ! When- ever there is an hereditary Chief, there must be an hereditary Senate to check him, or he will soon be either guillotined like Charles i and Louis the i6or become a Despot, like Napoleon. If I had not been a weak Man I should have explained myself, so as to be better un- derstood : and if your Man had not been a weak Man he would have understood me better. All I have con- tended for, has been that the first Magistrate should be made so respectable and so independent as to be able to mediate between the two great Factions of Aris- tocrats and Democrats which always has existed and always will tear Mankind to Pieces. Here I want but have not time, to introduce a new Theory of Vanity which I have discovered. . If I should not forget it, I may hereafter explain it. It would be somewhat to the Purpose in this place. The Nomination to the Treasury of the Mint, is one of the actions of my Life, which I have ever recollected with the most entire satisfaction, though it made me 196 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. about thirty nine enemies and among the rest Frederick Augustus Muhlenbourg. Every spriggof Laurell you receive at home or from abroad gives me pleasure because I believe it well mer- ited. Your "Rules for the Preservation of health" will be another Benefaction to Mankind, I doubt not. I was much pleased with handsome Bradford and should have asked a visit of him to Quincy, if he had not told me he was obliged to return the next day. Of Mr. Snyder I know nothing, but by Newspapers, the most faithless Tattlers, Busybodies and Mischief Makers in the World. Mr. Ross I know and esteem to a certain degree. Low diet is good in some Cases, I know by expe- rience, and Bleeding too I have found necessary at times. But which of the Maniacks shall we bleed Napoleon or George ? I once said, in answer to a Virginia address that it would depend upon Virginians to determine, whether we should have a Faction to crush and humble. Vir- ginians did determine, and the Faction was crushed and humbled in dust and ashes. Every Man convicted was obliged to pay Fines and Costs, to Germans the severest of Punishments, and four of them were obliged to obtain twelve thousand Petitioners for their Lives. I think this was dust and ashes, expressly as they were all obliged to confess their faults, express their penitence and promise Reformation. Shall I mention the names of Virginians and Pensilvanians who fomented this Insurrection? If you desire it, I will. The Federalists are now turning the Tables upon them and imitating their Arts, and I fear will excite insurrections in their turn. In short, my Friend, I fear OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 197 we are in danger, if not upon the Point of introducing a foreign war by a civil one. The Stubble is dry and a spark may raise a flame. The spirits are on fire. When the elections are decided, I hope they will be kept under, if they cannot be extinguished. Family to Family as ever. Dr. Rush. J. Adams. Quincy September 8. 1808. My dear Friend,-I will not stand upon Ceremo- nies with you and wait for the Return of a Visit, or an answer to my last Letter. Whatever proportion of Loyalty to an established Dinasty of Kings, or whatever taint of catholic super- stition there may be in the present sensations of the Spanish People, or however their Conduct may have been excited by British or Austrian Gold, I revere the Mixture of pure Patriotism that appears to be in it and inseparable from it; and I wish to know the sentiments of your Pensilvanian Statesmen concerning it. The Contest between the Houses of Austria and Bourbon in the beginning of the last Century, for the succession to the throne of Spain is well known. Phil- lip the 5th. and Charles the sixth were Rivals, as Fer- dinand the 7th. and Joseph the 1st. are now. Charles was supported by the Emperor, England and Holland and Phillip by France and her Allies. The Earls of Galloway and Peterborough ran about Spain with Armies at their heels and proclaimed Charles at Madrid and many other Places, till Louis 14th. and his Grandson Phillip were in despair. In this situation Vauban the great Teacher of Fortification and one of the profound 14 198 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. statesmen as well as honest Patriots of France, pro- posed to his Court to send Phillip to reign in America, that the Commerce of Mexico and Peru might be se- cured to the French. The English seem to have adopted this Project of Vauban and to aim at securing the Commerce of South America to themselves. Have your Philadelphia Politicians considered what will be the Consequence of this to the United States? How will it affect our Louisiana Claims, our West India Com- merce ? I am almost afraid to ask so bold and hazard- ous a question, as whether it will not make France the natural Ally of the U. S. The Inclination of the Spaniards were in favour of Phillip and the fortitude of the Castillians turned the scale in his favour. They made great efforts when they found him in danger. It is a very arduous enterprise to impose upon a Nation a King in spight of their Taste. The Austrians, the Dutch, the English and the Portu- guese were harrassed in Spain, suffered for want of provisions and were consumed by degrees. By some accounts certain Provinces in Spain have proclaimed Prince Charles. This looks like a desire to revive the old Connection of Spain with the House of Austria, which might check the House of Napoleon for the present, but would lay a foundation for interminable future wars in Europe. Is there room to hope that the French will meet with effectual obstructions in Spain? How will they procure Provisions? Not by sea. The English fleet is in the way. By Land from France and Italy will be almost im- possible, and the Spaniards have not Onions and Tur- nips enough for themselves. An army of two or three hundred thousand Frenchmen will consume a great OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 199 many Bushells. The Spaniards had better fight and die in Battle, than perish with Famine. These occurrences In Spain open wide views to those who have more Information and Sagacity than I have. They will give Trouble to Napoleon, employ a great part of his force and be a powerful temptation to Nations he has humbled to avenge their disgrace. The French have always been chased out of Italy. Germany and the North of Europe must be allarmed at the Prospect of having Spain and the Indies in the Power of the Corsicans. In short I know not but the Spaniards may produce in England a Marlborough, and in Germany a Eugene to give Napoleon a Fistula, what think you ? I have always called our Constitution a Game at Leap frog. New England is again converted to Federalism. The Federal Administration lasted twelve years. The Republicans then leaped over their heads and shoulders, and have ruled eight years. They may possibly hold out four years more and then probably the Federalists will leap again. But neither Party will ever be strong while they adhere to their austere exclusive Maxims. Neither Party will ever be able to pursue the true In- terest, honor and Dignity of the Nation. I lament the narrow, selfish spirit of the Leaders of both Parties but can do no good to either. They are incorrigible. We must adopt the Dutch Motto, In- certum quo Fata ferant. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. 200 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy, Septr. 27. 1808. Dear Sir, - That Rosicrusian sylph, that Fairy Queen Mab, or that other familiar spirit whatever it is, that inspires your nightly dreams, I would not exchange, if I had it, for the Daemon of Socrates. You have more wit and humour and sense in your sleep, than other People I was about to say, than you have yourself when awake. I know not whether I have ever read two finer allegories than the two you have given me from your nocturnal slumbers. I agree well enough with you in the moral of them both. I believe with you, " a Republican Government," while the People have the virtues, Talents and Love of Country necessary to support it " the best possible Government to promote the Interest, dignity and Happi- ness of Man." But you know that Commerce, Luxury and avarice have destroyed every Republican Govern- ment. England and France have tryed the experiment, and neither of them could preserve it for twelve years. It might be said with Truth, that they could not preserve it for a Moment; for the Commonwealth of England from 1640 to 1660 was in reality a succession of Monarch- ies under Pym, Hambden, Fairfax, and Cromwell. And the Republick of France was a similar monarchy under Mirabeau, Brissot, Danton, Robespierre, and a succes- sion of others like them down to Napoleon the Em- peror. The Mercenary spirit of Commerce has recently destroyed the Republicks of Holland, Switzerland, and Venice. Not one of these Republicks however dared at any time to trust the People with any elections what- ever, much less with the election of first Magistrates. In all these Countries the Monster Venality would in- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 201 stantly have appeared and swallowed at once all secu- rity of Liberty, Property, Fame and Life. When public virtue is gone, when the national spirit is fled, when a Party is substituted for the Nation, and faction for a party, when venality lurks and skulks in secret, and much more when it impudently braves the public Censure, whether it be sent in the form of emis- saries from foreign Powers, or is employed by ambitious and Intriguing domestic Citizens, the Republic is lost in essence, though it may still exist in form. The Form of a Senate is still preserved in Rome. The Prince Rez- zonico was presented to me in London under the Title of " Senatore di Roma." But what sort of a republick is Rome at present ? When Commerce and Luxury and Dissipation had introduced Avarice among the Greeks, the artfull Policy and military discipline of Phillip and his son, prevailed over all the Toils, Negotiations and Eloquence of De- mosthenes. The People, who in virtuous times, or if you will in times of national Pride had set the Hosts of Persia at Defyance, now sold themselves and bowed their necks to the yoke of a petty Prince of Macedonia. And poor Demosthenes, abandoned, persecuted while he lived was pursued to an ignominious Death, as the only Reward of his Patriotism. Immortal Glory has followed his eloquence : but this he could not enjoy while he lived : and we know not that he enjoys it since his death. I hope he has enjoyments superiour to this. The same Causes produced the same effects in Rome, and the Labours, Eloquence and Patriotism of Cicero, were to as little purpose as those of Demosthenes, and were equally rewarded. 202 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. We Mortals cannot work Miracles : we struggle in vain against the Constitution and Course of Nature. Americans, I fondly hope and candidly believe are not yet arrived at the age of Demosthenes or Cicero. If we can preserve our Union entire we may preserve our Republick. But if the Union is broken we become two petty Principalities little better than the Feudal ones, one of France and the other of England. If I could lay an embargo or pass a new importation Law against Corruption and foreign Influences, I would not make it a temporal but a perpetual Law, and I would not repeal it, though it should raise a Clamour as loud as my Gag Law or your Grog Law or Mr. Jeffer- sons embargo. The Majorities in the five states of New England, though small are all on one side. New York has forti- fied the same Party with half a dozen Members, and anxious are the expectations from New Jersey, Pen- silvania and Maryland. There is a body of the same party in every other state. The Union I fear is in some danger. Nor is the danger of foreign War much di- minished. An alliance between England and Spain is a new aspect of Planets towards us. Surrounded by Land on the East, North, West and South by the Ter- ritories of two such Powers, and blockaded by sea by two such Navies as the English and Spanish, without a Friend or Ally by sea or Land, we may have all our Republican virtues put to a Tryal. I am weary of Conjectures but not in despair. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 203 Quincy Oct. 10. 1808. My dear Sir,-The three Classes of People in Bos- ton, who direct our public affairs are the same as those you describe in your favour of 22 of Sept. It gives me great pleasure to learn that our old Friend Mr. Clymer is as he always was a pure Ameri- can. I cannot however boldly defend the long Contin- uance of the embargo. I thought it at first a necessary Measure, but was fully apprehensive it could not be long continued. I am neither an advocate nor an accuser of Mr. Jefferson without discrimination. I can acquit him of Partiality to Napoleon, but not entirely to the french Nation. I have long known his bias to the French and his bitterness to the English. Of Napoleon I have reason to believe he thinks justly. Mr. Jefferson in my opinion has long ago adopted two very erroneous opinions. 1. That England was tottering to her fall. That her strength and resources were exhausted. That she must soon be a Bankrupt and unable to maintain her naval superiority. This I never believed and we shall yet have proofs enough and to spare of her tremendous Power, though I dread it not. Tom Paines Reflections on the Rubicon and his other Prophecies of British Ruin I personally know were Mr. Jeffersons opinions and continued to be so even when he vzas Vice President. 2. But the second opinion was still more erroneous and still more fatal. He did not study the French Nation, nor consider the Character of her Court, her Nobility, her Clergy, her Lawyers, her Institutions, and much less the nature of her common People, not one in fifty of whom could write or read. Fie had studied so little the nature of 204 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Man and still less the nature of Government, that he came from France and continued for years, fully per- suaded that the Nation would establish a free Repub- lican Government and even a levelling Democracy, and that Monarchy and Nobility would be forever abolished in France. I have reason to remember these Things, for I have heard him assert them and enlarge upon them with the utmost astonishment. I have reason to remem- ber them moreover, because these were the first Topicks upon which we ever differed in opinions upon political subjects. I have reason to remember them too because his opinions recommended him to the French Revolu- tionary Government and Nation, and especially to all the Friends, Ambassadors Consuls and other ao-ents as well as to all other Frenchmen in America, even to Tal- leyrand and the Duke de Liancourt, who all exerted all their influence and all their Praises to exalt Mr. Jefferson over my shoulders, and to run me down as an Aristocrat and a Monarchist. I have reason to remember it too because my opinion of the French Revolution, produced a coldness towards me in all my old Revolutionary Friends, and an Inclination towards Mr. Jefferson, which broke out in violent Invectives and false imputations upon me and in flattering Panegyricks upon Mr. Jeffer- son, till they ended in a consignment of me forever to private Life and the elevation of him to the Presidents Chair. My Writings were but a Pretext. They knew that neither Aristocracy or Monarchy were recom- mended to this Country in any of them. December 19th. 1808. Thus far had I written, on the 10th. of October and had planned in my head a Letter to be composed of more History and of ob- servations upon my Friend Mr. Whartons Prophecies, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 205 which I found would take four or five sheets of Paper and this Idea frightened me. Tell Mr. Wharton that the Prophecies in the Old and New Testament were not intended to make us Prophets. Your Favour of December 14 has reminded me of the Project I had begun. My right hand has not been palsied by Pain or sickness, to such a degree as to be wholly incapable of holding a Pen, nor have I ceased to contemplate the Crisis of our affairs. Nor am I fearful of committing my Thoughts to Paper. I could trace back our errors, but to what purpose? It would be weakness to exult over my ennemies. It would be vanity to sett up my own system as the only one that could have saved us. When a Man has been led by a Will with a Whisp into a salt pond and has sunk like Marius up to his Chin in mud, it would be madness to waste his time in Disquisitions on the Nature and Properties of those Meteors, in questions whether they are composed of Sulphur, or Mephitic Air or fixed air or Phosphorus or what else. The Question first in order, and which demands immediate attention is, How shall he get out? To what Purpose, my Friend, is it for me to give my opinion, when every appearance indicates that it will not be followed now any more than it was in 1800. My opinion will not be regarded by any or either Party. Si velis Pacem para bellum, is by the Federalists said to be Washingtons Doctrine. So it was and so it has been the Maxim of every Patriot and Hero and indeed of every Man of sense, who knew the Power of Jealousy and Envy in the human breast, since Cain murdered his Brother because he was a more pious Man and more approved by his Maker than himself. My system has always been to prepare for war so far 206 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. as to fortify our most important and most exposed Places on the Frontier and on the Seaboard, and to prepare for war by sea so far as to build Frigates and other smaller vessels Schooners and Brigantines, by degrees as our Revenues could afford, so that in case of an unforeseen rupture our immense Commerce might not be all liable to be swept at once into the Coffers of our Ennemies. To what use are 100,000 Militia to defend our Merchandise at sea? To what end are 2 or 300 Gunboats to protectour Commerce? For what pur- pose are Ten thousand regular Troops on the Continent of America, for the protection of our ships in the Med- iterranean the Baltic the English Channel the Bay of Biscay, or the West Indian or East Indian oceans ? The embargo I presume must be relaxed. If not it will either produce a general violation of it, which will cost more than foreign war to suppress it, or it will turn out of office, at least in New England every Man who sup- ports it. There will not be a select Man nor a Repre- sentative left who will advocate the administration. The same spirit will increase in the middle and even in the southern and western States. Mr. Madisons Adminis- tration will be a Scene of Distraction and Confusion if not of Insurrections and Civil War, and foreign war at the same time both with France and England if the embargo is not lightened. Why then are not orders given to equip and Man all the Frigates we have and to build more in all our great seaports? It is in vain for me who stand unconnected and alone, the object of the jealousy and aversion of both Parties, to repeat the opinion which I have uniformly held and always inculcated for more than thirty years that a Navy is our natural and our only Defence. It is infinitely OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 207 more economical as well as consistent with our Liberties than any other. But as long as the People are en- couraged in that penurious spirit which will hazard anarchy, foreign and domestic war, rather than pay the expense of wooden walls, though these are infinitely cheaper than regular Troops or Militia which can do nothing we must be the sport of Fortune. The Chapter of Accidents can alone save us. Those who believe that that Fortune and that Chapter of Acci- dents are under a wise controul, as you and I do must have recourse to their Religion and that alone for their Comfort. My opinion of Embargoes, Non Importation and Non Exportation Agreements, Non Intercourse Laws, Non Importation Laws &c., &c., has never varied. In 1774 Congress was unanimously sanguine two only excepted, that the Non Importation Agreement would procure the ample redress of all our Complaints. I went with the rest because the People everywhere were of the same opinion. But at that very time I said, in conversation with " The greatest orator that ever spoke" as Mr. Ran- dolph calls him, " I look upon all this as labour lost. These Measures will be despized and we must fight." " By God" said P. Henry " I am of your Mind." When Mr. Madison sent up to Senate his Resolutions of Non Importation, I decided the Question in a divided Senate against them. When the present embargo was laid I was of the same opinion, that we could give Laws neither to England nor France by such means. Yet I have raised no clamour against these Measures, being deter- mined to support the Government in whatever hands as far as I can in Conscience and in honour. J. Adams. 208 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Deer. 20th. I have no Clerk and must send this Letter without preserving a Copy. Therefore burn it. Quincy December 22. 1808. My dear Sir,-I know not whether I shall make you smile or weep, excite your ridicule or pity or contempt when I reveal to you the mistery of my long delay to answer your last Letters. But before I unriddle that unusual negligence, I must say a few words concerning our Friend Whartons Attachment to Prophecies and his habit of applying them to passing events. I have no objection to the Study, but I am aware of extream dangers in applying the Predictions to Characters and occurrences as they appear or approach, and before they are complete and at an end. Public Men especially would make wild steerage were they to judge of Men and things, by their sense of the Prophecies. Politicians, such as Pharisees, Machivilians and Jesuits have often employed interpretations of the Prophecies to excite superstitious Princes and enthusiastic Nations to engage in enterprizes, in no wise calculated for the good of Mankind. The Crusades which lasted two hundred years intoxicated all Europe and cost the Lives of three millions of Men were excited and supported by the Prophecies. The French Prophets too excited great troubles and brought horrible Persecutions upon them- selves as well as great Calamities upon others by their presumptuous Prognostications. The Dissenters in England, some of them I mean and Dr. Tower among others, contributed I fear to assist and propagate that democratical Fury which desolated France and has sub- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 209 jugated the continent of Europe, and came very near producing in England a Revolution similar to that of France. The most Atheistical Philosophers of France and of Europe encouraged in secret this engine to work upon popular Credulity and excite popular passions. Bonaparte and his Politicians are manifestly holding out the Idea of the Restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem, and this delusion preceeded and accompanied his expe- dition to Egypt, and is still propagated far and wide. Fabers very fashionable Book I consider as a mere British political Pamphlet calculated to excite religious abhorrence in England against Napoleon. The Man may be pious and sincere, so might Archbishop Sand for what I know, but sincerity in error cannot convert it into Truth, and a Mans Passions, Prejudices and even his Patriotism often induce Men to adopt opinions with- out sufficient evidence. It grieves me to relate an Anecdote of our Friend Dr. Priestley whom I greatly esteemed and sincerely loved, though I think he was seduced by a hot headed Friend Cooper to injure me very grossly. At Break- fast with me alone when I was Vice President, he talked very freely of the French Revolution and with great satisfaction. I heard him a long time in silent wonder, but in perfect good humour, till at last, when he pauzed, I asked him very cooly " Dr. Do you really believe that the French Nation will succeed in establishing a free Government?" He answered me with a good natured smile "Yes I do believe they will." I then enquired "Upon what principles and by what Reasons do you ground your opinion ? Is not all experience and all History against it?" "Why I fear it is," said the Dr. 210 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. "but I found my Judgment wholly upon the Prophecies. I understand the King of France to be the first of the ten horns of the great Beast which were to fall off, and I believe that the nine others will fall off after him at no very distant period of time." " I am very glad to know your Reason, sir, and it is impossible for me to say that it is not sufficient: but it would be dangerous for public Men to hazard any great and decisive critical Measure upon such Information only" was my answer. The Doc- tor after a little pause added, with a smile " There is how- ever I confess still some uncertainty attending it, for I was but yesterday reading The Travels of a French Gentleman in England in the year 1659. He had vis- ited all parts of England, and said he found the Nation universally engaged in Deliberations upon the perma- nent form of Government they were to assume for the Preservation of Liberty for their Posterity. Various Parties were for different forms of a Republick, but all Parties unanimously agreed in this that there should never be Kings, Nobles or Bishops any more in Eng- land. Monarchy, Nobility and Prelacy were to be abol- ished forever. This was in 1659 when the Nation was so unanimous against Monarchy yet in 1660 the whole Nation went mad for Monarchy, Nobility and Prelacy again." Thus the Dr. I thought as he did that this ex- ample had great weight. I was not unacquainted with the passage in the French Traveller, tho I have forgot his name ; and the rise, progress and Termination of the civil war in England was very familiar to me. I read very early in Life Clarendon and Whitelock and all the principal writers upon that Period, and I know of no Book of mere History that was ever of more service to me than Clarendon or gave me so much in- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 211 sight into Men and Government, though I knew him to be partial. If our youth would read Clarendon more tho they should be obliged to read Johnson, Hume and Gibbon less there would be no loss. Whether the Prophesies, my Friend, are divine, as you and I believe them to be, or whether they are mere human Inventions of learned and ingenious Men as Voltaire his Masters and Disciples represent them to be they profess to comprehend a vast dispensation of Providence beginning with the Creation and ending with the Conflagration of the World. The Universal History of the whole Family of Mankind therefore comes within the limits of this incomprehensible system. Not only the Hebrews, the Christians and Mahometans, but all the other Nations of the earth for all these have been more or less connected with the others, may be traced with a view to illustrate some passage or other in these ancient Predictions. A subject so sublime never fails to engage the attention, and often wholly engrosses it, of every Man of Learning and Genius who indulges himself in turning his Thought that way. It always excites enthusiasm and often transporting visions, and not infrequently Delirium. I do not think it an unlawful study, but I believe it to be a very dan- gerous one to any Man who is not well fortified with Philosophical as well as Theological Caution. To me it appears Presumption, I had almost said Impiety to pretend to foresee future events through this Telescope. Having named Voltaire I may now explain my long silence. For three or four months I have been in com- pany with such great Personages as Moses, Zoroaster, Sanchoniathan, Confucius, Numa, Mahomet and others of that Rank. In that period I have read four volumes 212 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. of Voltaires Essai sur les Moeurs et 1'esprit des Na- tions and three of his Louis 14 and fifteen, and these led me to read his Bible expliquee, his Philosophy of History, his Sermons, Homilies, Dialogues and a mul- titude of other Pieces in which his whole stock of Learning, wit, humour, satyr, scurrility, Buffoonery were exhausted. Many of these I had seen before. Indeed all his Materials have been familiar to me for more than fifty years. Morgans Moral Philosopher and some others of the same stamp fell into my hands at Worcester in 1755 and before and after that I had been acquainted with Lelands View of the Deistical Writers. And all my Life time some Deistical writer or other has fallen from time to time into my hands. Nothing new to me therefore has occurred from read- ing this Fatrass of Voltaire. Indeed I have been some- what surprized to find that there is nothing new in him. He borrows every Thing from Herbert Blount, Tindal, Collins, Woolston, Shaftsbury, Bolinbroke, and the other English Infidels with a few additions from his Countryman Boulanger and two or three others. The vast extent and variety of Talents which this mortal possessed had given him a Reputation, through the world and his wit and style attracted readers of all Nations. Every Body read his works. His Dramatic Compositions, his Epick Poems, his Historical Works, his astonishing Multitude of fugitive Pieces, his favour- ite Doctrines of Liberty temporal and spiritual and his daring attacks upon the Pope, the Monastic orders, and the whole Hierarchy of the Romish Church occasioned him to be more universally read than any other author that ever lived. This reputation gave him power to propagate through the world the miserable spoils which OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 213 he borrowed or stole from the English Infidels with an effrontery more unjustifiable and inexcusable than that of the Hebrews which he censures so bitterly, when they borrowed Gold and Silver and Jewells of the Egyptians. In opposition to him I have been consulting the Let- ters of the Jews of Portugal, Holland, Germany and Poland. Never was poor Culprit more genteely whipped at the whipping post. They have convicted him of ig- norance of every Thing he pretended to know and in multitude of Instances proved him to be guilty of the grossest Lies and Impostures as well as of inconsisten- cies and contradictions innumerable. Although I have been so highly entertained as to neglect my most precious Correspondent I would not advise him ever to spend his time so idly, at least unless he should ever have as much Leisure as I have, and that I am very sure can never happen. I have no Amanuensis and if I had I would not copy this Letter and therefore I pray you to burn it. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy January 23. 1809. Dear Sir,-What signify Clamours against Com- merce, Property, Kings, Nobles, Demagogues, De- mocracy, the Clergy, Religion ? For to each and all of these has the Depravity of Man been imputed by some Philosophers. Rousseau says the first Man who fenced a Cabbage yard ought to have been put to death. Dide- rot says the first Man who suggested the Idea of a God ought to have been treated as an ennemy of the human Race. Tom Quelqu'un of Clapham in England said i5 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 214 He believed in no God, No Providence, no future state, but he loved Life so well that if he could but be assured of immortal existence, he would consent to be pitched about in fire and Brimstone by the Devils with their forks to all eternity. Some of our Religionists say that before a Man can be fit to be saved he must be willing to be damned to all Eternity. It is a Pity that Men of Sense will give any attention to any of these Ravings which are fit only for Bedlam. Phylosophy, Morality, Religion, Reason, all concur in your Conclusion that " Man can be governed only by accomodating Laws to his Nature." Your Lancet is so much and so usefully employed that it seems to be hard to request you to meddle with your Pen. I have sometimes scruples lest I am doing an Injury to some of your Patients or Pupils when I provoke you to read or write a Letter. But as I know your political Pen to be as salutiferous as your medical or Chirurgical Instruments, I will run the risque to ask you, why in this momentous Crisis you and other Phi- losophers in Philadelphia will not write sometimes to help us out of our Difficulty. The embargo must be removed. It is Pensilvania and New York who still keep it on. If it is kept on till Doomsday it will not bend France or England. We are in a shocking De- lusion not only in our opinion of the efficacy of the embargo, but in our unaccountable aversion to Naval Preparations. The one Thing needful is a Navy. The expense is held up as a Bugbear. Mr. Searle told me in Holland that the accounts of our whole Naval arma- ments and Preparations during the Revolutionary War had been made up. And the United States shares in the Prizes they had made amounted to thirteen millions OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 215 of Dollars more than their whole Cost. These were paper dollars no doubt, but if they paid their way, be- sides the necessary military Munitions and Protection to our Shores and Commerce they procured and af- forded this was a great Thing. Whatever Vices there are, Federalism and Repub- licanism will cover them all. An infamous Birth, a more infamous Life, and a contemptible death, will at any time be cannonized as a saint by the former, and Folly, Ignorance, Stupidity and Debauchery will be adored in their Life time by the latter. No Virtues, No Talents will make atonement with either, for Honor and Justice when maintained against the Party Will. We may flatter ourselves that a Numerous Legisla- ture will be favourable to the People and Bulwarks to Liberty, but it will be found that in all Countries and under all forms of Government a very few Men rule the whole. In Company with Mr. Eden at a Diplo- matic Dinner he took me aside and said " I am anxious about affairs between my Country and yours." So am I. " Two honest Men sitting down together might in two or three hours arrange every thing to mutual satis- faction." I am fully of that opinion, but this Nation by what I can observe does not think so. "This Nation! This Nation thinks exactly as two or three of us would have it think, at most four or five of us." The same I fear may be said of our complicated Government of seventeen sovereignties within one sovereignty. Our Parties would not be dangerous if it were not for foreign Influences. To deny that there has been a French Influence and an English Influence in this Coun- 216 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. try ever since the Peace is to deny that the sun and Moon have shone upon the earth. They have played with our Parties and run the Game of Leap frog with them. Look back upon the History of Europe for the last thirty years. You will see French Influence and English Influence constantly at work in Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Naples and Turkey. When two Nations so powerful and rich as England and France have been for ages in the habit of negotiating and intriguing with all Nations how can we expect to be out of reach of their Arts ? They have played the Game of Leap frog with all the Nations I have mentioned as well as with us. The Great Body of our Nation is divided in affec- tion or by fear between the two. Very few Men are really impartial and they have no Influence because nothing but Party has influence. There is a French Party and an English Party in every Nation of Europe. While the opposite Winds are struggling for the su- periority we shall be tossed upon the billows. When either gets the Mastery we shall be driven incertum quo fata ferant. A Navy is the only object that can form an inde- pendent American Party. France and England are both sensible of this tho we are not, and accordingly both Powers set their faces against a Navy in this Country and do all they can to discourage it. Our Legislature meets the day after tomorrow and we shall have stormy weather. Federalism grows every day more and more tryumphant and Mr. Jef- ferson and his successor more and more unpopu- lar. Nothing will check this Career but a Repeal of the Embargo Laws, Non Importation Laws, Non In- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 217 tercourse Laws, and beginning in earnest a Naval force. I am sincerely yours Dr. Rush J. Adams. Quincy Feb. 20. 1809. My dear Sir,-When you informed me that Mr. Cooper in his life of Dr. Priestley had ascribed to that Philosopher, the first hint of the Perfectability of the human mind, I answered you that this was the Doctrine of the Ancient Stoicks. My Memory did not serve me with details and I referred to no authorities, not think- ing it worth while to search Books upon such a subject. But within a day or two I have accidentally met with a passage in Seneca a Disciple of Zeno to this effect that the human mind is a portion of the divine spirit im- mersed in Body, the same in God and in Man, with this difference only that in God it is perfect, in us capable of perfection. In corpus humanum, pars divini spiritus mersa. Diis hominibusque communis. In illis con- summata est; in nobis consummabilis. It was a Maxim of that school, that the human soul is divine and all divine natures are the same. Divinorum una natura est. Similar Ideas are found among all the ancient Philosophers as Pythagoras, Plato and their followers. The Christian Fathers adoped some of them. St. Austin says, Nothing is superior to the human soul but God. Nihil est potentius, nihil est sublimus. Quicquid supra illam est, jam Creator est. All Sectaries and especially all Innovators in Religion and Government have recourse to the marvellous to inflame the Imaginations and to Flattery of the human 218 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. heart, to engage the affections of their followers. And no sect of Religion or Politicks that ever existed in the world, ever carried these Jesuitical artifices to greater extravagance than the late Faction of Atheistical Phi- losophers in France. But I am weary of Contemplating the phantastic Theories and mad Practices of Divines, Philosophers, Legislators, Politicians and Conquerors. Experimental is the only Knowledge. Our beloved Country is becoming as delirious as all others. If you have time to read the Paper you will see what our Towns and Legislatures are doing, and why should an embargo be continued to produce such Proceedings as I am afraid to write, till it becomes ridiculous. The Southern States and the Northern States appear to me to be all going wrong to the ut- most danger of our Union as well as Independence. The Town of Boston and the other Towns and States in which it has most influence, are glowing, and the Leg- islature imbibes too much of their heat. And the Southern States have inflamed them all by venturing on Measures which cannot be justified. Measures which I believe no People in Europe could bear. Fury instead of Reason, will soon determine what shall be done, if a Change does not take place in our Councils. I wrote you on the 23rd. of January, since which I have received none of your favours. I am as ever your Friend without Interruption for five and thirty years. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 219 Quincy March 4. 1809. Rush,-If I could dream as much wit as you, I think I should wish to go to sleep for the rest of my Life, retaining however one of Swifts Flappers to awake me once in 24 hours to dinner, for you know without a dinner one can neither dream nor sleep. Your Dreams descend from Jove, according to Homer. Though I enjoy your sleeping wit and acknowledge your unequalled Ingenuity in your dreams, I can not agree to your Moral. I will not yet allow that the Cause of "Wisdom, Justice, order and stability in human Governments" is quite desperate. The old Maxim Nil desperandum de Republica is founded in eternal Truth and indispensable obligation. Jefferson expired and Madison came to Life, last night at twelve o'clock. Will you be so good as to take a Nap, and dream for my Instruction and edification a Character of Jefferson and his Administration ? I pity poor Madison. He comes to the helm in such a storm as I have seen in the Gulph Stream, or rather such as I had to encounter in the Government in 1797. Mine was the worst however, because he has a great Majority of the officers and Men attached to him and I had all the officers and half the Crew always ready to throw me overboard. Our Candidate for Governor Mr. Gore has brought forward in our Legislature a proposition for war against France. I hope their Con- stituents are not for that Measure. But if a Majority of them is, I am not. I am not for a Division of the Union. Neither by the Potomack nor by the Hudson, nor by the Delaware. Mr. Lincoln our Republican Candidate is one of our 220 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. old Whigs and a Man of sense and Learning. He has given offence to our Clergy and grieved multitudes of our good Christians. Both Candidates are unpopu- lar. Party only will decide and neither Party will be fully satisfied whatever the decision may be. The English Party is very confident of success in the Choice of Mr. Gore. The French Party is very diffident of their Man. If the Federalists prevail Mr. Madison will have New England States very powerfully against him, through his whole four years. Mr. Jeffersons ap- pointments in New England have been so entirely on Party Motives, and have fallen upon such Characters as have brought the National Government into Contempt. I hope Mr. Madison will be more prudent. If he is not he will have a terrible Navigation of it. We have been serenaded this morning with the Roar of Cannon from the Castle and from Republican Collec- tions in the neighbouring Towns, on the Accession of the new Monarch to the Throne, but there is a great gloom and a great Rage among the People. I am very anxious to know the final Result of the tenth Congress. Our peace will depend very much upon that Result. Whatever is to be the destiny of our Country, you will always find a Friend in Dr. Rush. J. Adams. Quincy March 14th. 1809. My dear Friend,-Your Anecdotes are always ex- tremely apropos and none of them more so than those in your letter of Mar. 2d. The King of Spain who attempted to purify the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 221 streets of Madrid was the Father and the Grandfather of the two Animals now in Napoleons Menagerie ; and the only bon mot that ever I heard of him was upon that occasion. He said "his good People of Madrid were like Babies who having dirtied their Diapers and their Mothers were anxiously wiping their Bottoms for their good, never failed to bawl." You forgot the Czar who attempted by an edict to compel his Russians to shave their Faces, found their Pride in their Beards too powerful for all his armies. I remember our Massachusetts Legislature once made a Law for the extirpation of Barberry Bushes, upon severe Penalties. Not a single Bush was ever injured in obedience to it, and at the next election seven eighths of the Members were turned out and Friends to Bar- berries elected who instantly repealed the Law. Another time in my Memory our Legislature made a Law to compel Batchelors to marry upon Pain of paying double Taxes. The People were so attached to the Liberty of propagating their species or not as they chose according to their Consciences that at the next election they left out all the advocates for the bill and chose Men who respected the Right of Celibacy enough to repeal the Law. Legislators ! Beware how you make Laws to shock the Prejudices or break the habits of the People. Inno- vations even of the most certain and obvious utility must be introduced with great caution, Prudence and Skill. I am very anxious about your state because I think the Fate of American Union and Independence depends more upon its Policy than its Wisdom or Virtue qualifies it to adopt. You and I remember the Times when Virginia and 222 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Massachusetts agreed very well and acted cordially to- gether. And other Times when Pensilvania and Mas- sachusetts associated very well; but I fear these were the Times when the old Constitutional Party was pre- dominant. At other Times Massachusetts and New York have drawn together sincerely and amicably. But Burr by his Intrigues with Clintons and Living- stones and Gates threw New York into the scale of Virginia and McKean by his Intrigues with Gallatin, Dallas Swanwick and other Foreigners the French the Spaniards the Irish and the Germans has allienated Pensilvania entirely from Massachusetts and thrown her blindfold into the arms of Virginia. There is now there- fore and has been for eight years a Combination of Vir- ginia Pensilvania and New York against Massachusetts and their Domination has been so hard hearted that if it should be much longer continued and be much more cruel, I really do not know but the People of New Eng- land would petition the King of England to take them under his Protection again and appoint their Governors, Senators and Judges. The Royal appointments in New England before the Revolution were as respectable as Mr. Jeffersons appointments have been. I wish that some of the Choice Spirits in each of those four States could form a Connection that might unite those four great States in one plan or system of domes- tic or foreign affairs. Without this our seventeen sov- ereignties in one sovereignty, our seventeen wheels within one wheel, our seventeen Imperia in one Imperio will not work well. If Mr. Sneider discards Duane and Lieb, McKean and Dallas and depends wholly on his Quadroons, I have a strong Curiosity to know who they are ? what OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 223 their systems ? what their Principles ? Can they be the old Constitutional Party ? I should suppose that Dallas and Duane had all them in their Friendship. Mr. Binns, your active and intelligent Printer, I suppose is a For- eigner. Of what Country is he? Pensilvania must always it seems be governed by Foreigners. The Birth of Washington was celebrated in Boston too. The Feasts and Funerals in Honour of Washing- ton, Hamilton and Ames are mere hypocritical Pag- eantry to keep in Credit, Banks, Funding Systems and other Aristocratical Speculation. It is as corrupt a system as that by which saints were canonized and Cardinals Popes and whole hierarchical systems created. I allow Washington, Hamilton and Ames all their real Merit but many others much more important and de- serving than either of them instead of being honoured, are studiously, and systematically driven into oblivion. Our New England Federal Papers have been cele- brating the dear Love of Old England towards us and the horrible dangers that Napoleon will conquer Eng- land and then conquer America till they have frightened the People into their Party. As I believe none of these Tales, I cannot approve much of the Conduct that has been produced by them. I have Children and Grand- children and little to leave them besides their Liberty. I am sometimes more anxious for this than my Philos- ophy approves. I wish you could allay my fears. With great regard always yours Dr. Rush. J. Adams. 224 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy March 23rd. 1809. My sensible and humorous Friend,-I agree with Sidney as quoted in your favour of the 13th. That Civil War is preferable to Slavery and I add that foreign war and civil war together at the same time are preferable to slavery. We hear very often declamations on the demoralizing tendency of war, but as much as I hate war, I cannot be of the opinion, that frequent wars are so corrupting to hu- man Nature as long Peaces. In a Peace of an hundred years and sometimes of fifty, and I have some suspicions of twenty five a Nation looses its honor, Integrity and most of its other virtues. It sinks into universal ava- rice, Luxury, Volupty, Hypocrisy and Cowardice. War necessarily brings with it some virtues and great and heroic virtues too. Holland, Denmark and Italy ought to be warnings to us. Those Nations by long Peace were sunk below the Character of Man. What horrid Creatures we Men are, that we cannot be virtuous with- out murdering one another ? The Honours done to Mr. Pickering I suppose were upon a similar Principle to those formerly done to Mr. Gallatin. I was not displeased to see by Mr. Madisons nomi- nation of my son that he was not totally renounced, ab- jured and abhorred by all Parties like his Father : but I have no inclination to see him banished into Siberia. I rejoice that he is not to go, though I thank not the Senate for preventing it. That vote was an Aristocrat- ical usurpation. There has been a constant Inclination in the Senate for twenty years to interfere with the President in appointments to foreign Embassies. In OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 225 Washingtons reign there were motions made several times to pass similar resolutions. They were always evaded by the previous Question. The secret pride of Aristocracy lurked in the heart with so much Influence as to prevent the Majority from passing a Resolution as in my opinion they ought, that the Senate had no con- stitutional authority to judge of the Necessity or Expe- diency of any proposed Embassy. In my distracted times I believe the Senate never went so far upon Rec- ord, though they sent private Committees to overawe me upon several occasions and negatived some of my Nominations because I would not give way to their secret Cabals. The Power of the Senate in Executive affairs is in my opinion the rotten Part of the Constitu- tion, and requires an amendment in the Constitutional way more than any other Thing. That Power over- turned the federal administration and will embarrass if not destroy every future one. Mr. Jefferson's Nomination of a Minister to Russia at the end of his Term was a wise Measure; and Mr. Madisons repetition of it at the beginning of his shews that his views are too extensive to be bounded by the expense of a Mission. It is of great Importance that our President should be informed of the Views and Politicks of the Northern Courts and Cabinets at this dangerous Conjuncture. As to my son I would not advise him to refuse to serve his Country when fairly called to it: but as to myself I would not exchange the Pleasure I have in his society once a week, for any office in or under the United States. I see our American Parties precisely in the same Light with you. I am determined to swallow American 226 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Garlick enough to defend me against French and Eng- lish, Federal and Republican Onions, let their odor be as strong as it will. The most modern Reproach against me that has come to my Knowledge is that " Misinterpretations and Mis- representations of my opinions have done great Injuries to my Country." And what has not been misunder- stood and misrepresented? The spirit of God could not or would not dictate words that could not be mis- understood or perverted. Misinterpretations of the Scriptures of the old and new Testaments have founded Mosques and Cathedrals, have made saints Cardinals and Popes, Tyrants and Despots without Number, and deluged three quarters of the Globe I mean all Chris- tian and Mahometan Countries at times in blood. Must not a Man write or speak lest his words should be mis- understood ? I am weary, my Friend of that unceasing Insolence of which I have been the object for twenty years. I have opposed Nothing to it but stoical Patience, unlim- ited submission, passive obedience and Non Resistance. Mausauleums, Statues, Monuments will never be erected to me. I wish them not. Panegyrical Romances will never be written, nor flattering orations spoken to trans- mit me to Posterity in brilliant Colours. No nor in true Colours. All but the last I loath. Yet I will not die wholly unlamented. Cicero was libelled, slandered, in- sulted by all Parties : By Caesars Party, Catalines Crew, Clodius's Mirmidons, aye and by Pompey and the Senate too. He was persecuted and tormented by turns by all Parties and all Factions and that for his most virtuous and glorious actions. In his anguish at times and in the consciousness of his own Merit and Integrity he was OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 227 driven to those assertions of his own actions which have been denominated vanity. Instead of reproaching them with vanity I think them the most infallible demonstra- tion of his Innocence and Purity. He declares that all honors are indifferent to him because he knows that it is not in the Power of his Country to reward him in any proportion to his services. Pushed and injured and provoked as I am I blush not to imitate the Roman, and to say to these snarlers against me that if to avoid misrepresentations of my words I had omitted to speak and write they would never have been wealthy and powerful as they are. This Country would never have been independent. Three hundred Millions of acres of excellent Land which she now holds would have been cutt off from her Limits. The Cod and Whale Fisheries those inexhaustible sources of wealth and power would have been ravished from her, the Massachusetts Constitution, the United States Con- stitution, the Constitution of New York, that of Phila- delphia and every other Constitution in the United States which is fit for any but Brutes to live under, would never have been made. Our Armies could not have been fed or cloathed for a longr time nor our Ambassadors Franklin and Jefferson supported but with my Money ; an American Navy would never have existed the Bar- berry Powers would have captivated and plundered, and without my Treaty in 1800 which I made by force against all the Arts and opposition of those who pre- tended to be my Friends we should have been now in- volved in a foolish War with France and a slavish alliance with Great Britain. All this in my Conscience I believe to be true. Let the Federalists then talk about Misinterpretations 228 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. and Misrepresentations of my words or actions. None have done more of them than themselves. I appeal to foreign Nations. I appeal to my own Countrymen within a year after my death. And there let the appeal rest for the present. Adieu, fireside to fireside as usual. Dr. Rush. J. Adams. Quincy April 12. 1809. Dear Rush,-Thank you for your favour of the ist. I might have quoted Job as well as St. Paul, as a Prece- dent : but as I mix Religion with Politicks as little as pos- sible, I chose to confine myself to Cicero. You advise me to write my own Life. I have made several at- tempts but it is so dull an employment that I cannot endure it. I look so much like a small Boy in my own eyes that with all my vanity I cannot endure the sight of the Picture. I am glad you have resolved to do your- self Justice. I am determined to vindicate myself in some points while I live. Inclosed is a whimsical speci- men. In future I shall not be so Goguenard. The Dialogue between Diodati and me is litteral Truth. That is it is a litteral Translation from the French in which Language the Conversation was held, and which I reduced to writing. You may ask what Reasons I had for foreseeing such Consequences. I will give you a few hints among a thousand. i. When I went home to my Family in May 1770, from the Town Meeting in Boston, which was the first I had ever attended, and where I had been chosen in my absence without any solicitation one of their Repre- sentatives, I said to my wife, I have accepted a seat in OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 229 the House of Representatives and thereby have con- sented to my own Ruin, to your Ruin and the Ruin of our Children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your Mind for your Fate. She burst into a Flood of Tears, but instantly cried out in a transport of Magnanimity "Well I am willing in this Cause to run all risques with you and to be ruined with you if you are ruined." These were times my Friend in Boston which tried Womens souls as well as Mens. 2. I saw the awefull prospect before me and my Country in all its horrors, and notwithstanding all my vanity, was conscious of a thousand defects in my own Character as well as health which made me despair of going through and weathering the storms in which I must be tossed. 3. In the same year 1770 My Sense of Equity and Humanity impelled me against a torrent of Unpopular- ity and the Inclination of all my Friends to engage in Defence of Captain Preston and the soldiers. My suc- cessful exertions in that Cause, though the result was perfectly conformable to Law and Justice, brought upon me a Load of Indignation and unpopularity which I knew would never be forgotten nor entirely forgiven. The Boston Newspapers to this day shew that my ap- prehensions were well founded. 4. You can testify for me that in 1774 My Conduct in Congress drew upon me the Jealousy and Aversion not only of the Tories in Congress who were neither few nor feeble, but of the whole Body of Quakers and Proprietary Gentlemen in Pensilvania. I have seen and felt the Consequences of these Prejudices to this day. 5. I call you to witness that I was the first Member of Congress who ventured to come out in public as I io 230 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. did in January 1776 in my Thoughts on Government in a Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend, that is Mr. Wythe, in favour of a Government in three Branches with an independent Judiciary. This Pamphlet you know was very unpopular. No Man appeared in Public to sup- port it, but yourself. You attempted in the public Papers to give it some Countenance but without much success. Franklin leaned against it. Dr. Young, Mr. Timothy Matlock and Mr. James Cannon and I suppose Mr. George Bryant were alarmed and displeased at it. Mr. Thomas Paine was so highly offended with it, that he came to visit me at my Chamber at Mrs. Yards to re- monstrate and even scold at me for it, which he did in very ungenteel terms. In return I only laughed at him and rallied him upon his grave arguments from the old Testament to prove that Monarchy was unlawful in the sight of God. " Do you seriously believe Paine," said I " in that pious Doctrine of yours ?" This put him in good humour and he laught out. " The old Testament!" said he, " I don't believe in the old Testament. I have had thoughts of publishing my sentiments of it; but upon deliberation I have concluded to put that off till the latter part of Life." Paines wrath was excited because my Plan of Government was essentially different from the silly Projects that he had published in his Common Sense. By this means I became suspected and un- popular with the Leading Demagogues and the whole Constitutional Party in Pensilvania. 6. Upon my return from France in 1779 I found my- self elected by my native Town of Braintree, a Member of the Convention for forming a Constitution for the State of Massachusetts. I attended that Convention of nearly four hundred Members. Here I found such OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 231 a Chaos of absurd sentiments concerning Government, that I was obliged daily before that great assembly and afterwards in the Grand Committee, to propose Plans and advocate Doctrines which were extreamly unpop- ular with the greater Number. Mr. Cushing was avowedly for a single assembly like Pensilvania, Samuel Adams was of the same Mind, Mr. Flancock kept aloof in order to be Governor. In short I had at first no support but from the Essex Junto who had adopted my Ideas in the Letter to Mr. Wythe. They supported me timorously and at last would not go with me to so high a Mark as I aimed at which was a compleat Negative in the Governor upon all Laws. They made me how- ever draw up the Constitution, and it was finally adopted with some Amendments, very much for the worse. The bold, decided and determined Part I took in this As- sembly in favour of a good Government, acquired me the Reputation of a Man of High Principles and Strong Notions in Government scarcely compatible with Re- publicanism. A foundation was here laid of much Jealousy and unpopularity among the democratical People in this State. 7. In Holland I had driven the English Party and the Statholders Party before me like Clouds before the Wind and had brought that Power to unite cordially with America, France and Spain against England. If I had not before alienated the whole English Nation from me, this would have been enough to produce an eternal Jealousy of me and I fully believed that when- ever a free Intercourse should take place between Britain and America I might depend upon their per- petual ill will to me and that their influence would be used to destroy mine. 232 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 8. In all my Negotiations in France and Holland in 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783 and 1784 I had so uniformly resisted all the Arts and Intrigues of the Count de Vergennes and Mr. De Sartine and all their satellites, and that with such perfect success that I well know, although they treated me with great external re- spect, yet in their hearts they had conceived an ineradi- cable Jealousy and aversion to me. I well knew there- fore that French Influence in America would do all in its Power to trip me up. 9. Dr. Franklins behaviour had been so excessively complaisant to the French Ministry and in my opinion had so endangered the essential Interest of our Coun- try that I had been frequently obliged to differ from him and sometimes to withstand him to his face, that I knew he had conceived an irreconcilable hatred of me, and that he had propagated and would continue to propagate Prej- udices if nothing worse against me in America from one end of it to the other. Look into Benjamin Franklins Baches Aurora and Duanes Aurora for twenty years and see whether my expectations have not been verified. With all these Reflections fresh in my Mind you may judge whether my anticipations in the good humoured Conversation with Deodati were rash, peevish or ill grounded. In short I have every reason to acknowledge the protecting Providence of God from my Birth and es- pecially through my public Life. I have gone through Life with much more safety and Felicity than I ever ex- pected. With devout Gratitude I acknowledge the divine favour in many Instances and among others for giving me a friend in you who though you would never follow me as a Disciple have always been my Friend. Dr. Rush. John Adams. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 233 Quincy April 12. 1809. Dear Sir,-1 rejoice to find that Pensilvania has returned to reason and Duty in the affair of the Miss Writtenhouses. Our Massachusetts Legislators have not gone so far as yours did: but they have gone too far. I rejoice too at the Honourable acquittal of your worthy Brother, but lament the allarming attack upon the choicest Institution of Liberty the Tryal by Jury. Without this there can be no legal Liberty. Present my Compliments to Major Butler and tell him that though in former times our political Horses could not draw kindly together in the same Car, I recol- lect many a social hour with pleasure. What is to be the Destiny of our Country. It is Sampson struggling against the Blandishments of Delilah and the Chains of the Philistines. I hope he will neither brake his own Neck nor pull down the House upon his Head. I cannot and you will not do any Thing to de- liver him out of the Toils. I hear Clergymen preach in a style I do not like. " A corrupt Capitol" &c. Congress is no more corrupt than our Town of Boston or our Massachusetts Legis- lature. At least I have as much Charity for them. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy June 7. 1809. Dear Sir,-Your Letters are not apt to lie a month unacknowledged. That of May 5th. is before me since which I have recd. an Aurora under your envellope. I 234 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. thank you for both. Thanks too for your sons inaugural Dissertation. I wish him success in his studies Travels and Practice. May he become as eminent, as skilful, as humane, as virtuous and as successful as his father. I rejoice that your son Richard is becoming eminent in his Profession. May he become as renowned in Law and State as his father is and I hope his Brother will be in Medicine. It would divert you if I were to amuse myself with writing an answer to the Tory Ennemy you mention. That wretches father stepped into my Practice in Boston when I was sent to Congress and by my Business made a fortune of two or three hundred thousand dollars. Left him a splendid fortune, a Palace in Boston, a superb Country seat and very large sums in Banks and Stocks. A fortune accumulating now every day whereas I have not added a shilling to my Property these eight years. He is worth I suppose four times as much as I am. His uncle by my appointment made as Navy Agent in three or four years more than I am worth. If I was allowed two and an half Per Cent on a Million Sterling that I borrowed and passed thro my hands in Holland as he was for 4 or 500 thousand dollars he spent as Navy Agent it would amount to twice the sum I am worth. For this I was never allowed a farthing. Two others of his Connections I promoted. This is Essex Junto Gratitude. I suspect Mr. Duane will be weary before he fulfills his Promise of republishing all my Letters. I fear I shall be too voluminous for him. Frederick the Great sent word to the Emperor Joseph the Second before the War of Bavaria "To remember that tho he mounted his Horse with Difficulty, it was OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 235 with equal Difficulty that he dismounted when once he was on." I should be glad to know how the British subjects, the American Oligarchs and the Democratical Repub- licans judge of my Revelations. With usual Love Esteem and Respect to all J. Adams. I wish I were in a situation to see the Aurora. Dr. Rush. Quincy June 22. 1809. Dear Sir,-A thousand thanks to Richard for his Auroras and ten thousand to you for your Letter of the 14th. I am not subject to low spirits, but if I was one of your Letters would cure me at any time for a Month. Voltaires Brain I shall never get out of mine. It will make me laugh whenever I think of it. The Jews and Nonotte have pickled his Brain in a more durable Manner and kept it in a more perfect state of Preser- vation than his Niece. I cannot help respecting in some degree however the wretch and his Brains too. There is something so fine and so wonderful about him. Why may we not believe that he and Hamilton too were converted in Articulo Mortis and admitted into Celestial Mansions ? If so they will both be now thank- ing us for exposing the Turpitude of their Hearts and the Perversion of their Intellects in the state of their high health. If " the Diversions of Quincy" were as scientifick 236 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. and as useful as " the Diversions of Perley" I should never be ashamed of them. But Pretty in amber to observe the Forms Of Flies and Wasps and Scrubs and Dirt and Worms; The Things themselves are neither rich nor rare But wonder ! How the Devil they came there. I am in a fair way to be examined upon Interrogatories by all the Lawyers and Politicians. But I must not be diverted from my Course by Wandering Lights. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy August 7. 1809. My dear Friend,-I thank you for your favour of July 26 and its enclosures. You have frequently in a most friendly manner ad- vised me to write my own Life. I shall never have Resolution or Time to accomplish such a Work; but having been called before the Publick most unde- signedly and unexpectedly, and excessively reproached with one of the wisest most virtuous most successful and most important actions of my Life, the Peace with France in 1800 I undertook an Apology for it. You may see by the manner in which that is executed, how large a work it would require to vindicate all the actions of my Life. I am now upon the Peace of 1783. That I shall ex- hibit chiefly in Copies of Document and a few extracts from my own Letters. How it will be received I know not. The Printers in Boston talk of an edition of them in a Book. That is their affair. I have nothing to do with it. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 237 I wish your Lady and Daughter a Joyfull Return to you. I rejoice in James's success and Richards Happi- ness. John's Misfortune I deplore. I sympathize with you, and with the keener sensibility as I have experienced the Feelings and Reflections of a Father in Circum- stances perhaps still more desperate calamitous and afflicting. Parents must have their Tryals. I am now experi- encing another. My oldest son sailed on Saturday the 5th. of this Month for St. Petersbourg with his Family. The separation was like tearing me to Pieces. A more dutiful and affectionate son there cannot be. His so- ciety was always a cordial and a Consolation under all Circumstances. I maintain my serenity however. I can only pray for his safety and success. The objects of his Mission I know only by Conject- ure. I have thought these thirty years that we ought to have a Minister at that Court. As Hamilton was the Sovereign Pontiff of Federalism all his Cardinals no doubt will endeavor to excite the whole Church to excommunicate and Anathematize me. Content. It was time for a Protestant Separation. Their avarice and Ambition their servility to England and Menaces of the Union were misleading- the Nation. Fundamental Errors in Doctrine and Practice drew me once more out of my obscurity; and it will be some- time before they hear the last, if Life and health en- dure of John Adams. Dr. Rush. 238 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy August 31. 1809. My dear old Friend,-If I were not as disinterested as a Patriot, I should answer every Line from you as soon as recd. in order to get another. Your favour of Aug. 14 is yet, to my Grief unacknowledged. Neither Colonel Duane nor any other Newspaper will follow me through the long Journey I have under- taken. I am not certain that the Patriot will have Pa- tience and Perseverance enough. In short I shall be so tedious that I shall have neither Readers nor Printers. I dare say that as much as you love me you have not read, and it will be impossible you should read all that I have published, much less all that I shall publish. The Duties of your Profession will not allow you time ; nor can I say it is worth your while if you had more Leisure. I have very solemn notions of the sanctity of History. Every Historian ought to be able to take the Oath of Thuanus, Pro Veritate Historiarum mearum Deum ipsum obtestor. This was an oath taken to I know not how many volumes, forty or fifty perhaps. I should not dare to take such an oath to any History I could write. I pretend to nothing more than to furnish Memorials to serve Historians. It is their Business and Duty to detect my errors and appreciate every Thing according to its true value. Amid all my avocations I have found time to read Mr. Fox's Morsell of History; and I can scarcely refrain from wishing that his whole Parliamen- tary Life had been employed in writing History. It is but a Morsell of one single year of James the Second; but it displays an Industry a decernment a reflection beyond Robertson Hume Gibbon and all the rest. The style too is more pure and genuine English, not- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 239 withstanding the parentheses, than any of the pompous and elegant fine Gentlemen I have mentioned with Johnson added to the number. I doubt whether faith- ful History ever was or ever can be written. 300 years after the event it cannot be written without offending some powerful and popular Individual Family Party some Statesman, some General, some Prince, some Priest or some Philosopher. The World will go on always igno- rant of itself, its past History and future destiny. If you were to write the History of our Revolution how dif- ferent it would appear from the Histories we have ! The Anecdotes you mention I have no doubt are true. In Holland I wrote some observations on my Friend the Abby Raynal, in which an account is given of the sending back the ships and destroying the Tea very conformable to what you remember I said to you. If I had time I would sent it you. Mr. Cheethams project is of uncertain utility. The sooner Pain is forgotten perhaps the better. I fear he has done more harm than good. This is however speaking after the manner of Men, with submission to higher Powers. The News of your son John gives me great pleasure. I hope his gloom will wear off; when it has excited the Reflections and prompted the Resolutions which it ought. I had a Mind to deposit in some Print, my Negotia- tions under the Commissions for the Peace of 1783. But I must omit one half and the other half will weary the patience of all Readers. I should look back like Gifford on the Labours of these years, with scepticism, if my own hand writing did not rise before my eyes to silence all doubt. Dr. Rush. J. A. 240 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy Sept. 1. 1809. Dear Doctor,-Thanks for yours of Aug. 25 and the Papers enclosed. They are very high and very warm. You pretend that you have outlived your Patriotism; but you deceive yourself. Your feelings contradict your Assertions. You can never get rid of your Amor Patriee and attachment to your Natale solum. At your age and mine it would perhaps be better for our Tranquility if we could outlive all our public Feelings. Yet the very thought of this strikes us both with horror. Mr. Boudinot and Mrs. Bradford have given us the Pleasure of their Company for one day and I have returned their kind visit in Boston. I found them soci- able, friendly and agreeable. The aged Gentleman though afflicted with the Gout and has been confined for some time with it, has lost none of his vivacity or his Memory or his understanding as I could perceive. You remind me of a story which I heard in my youth of a young Priest who said of Dr. Tillotson Nothing but his Table Makes him considerable. Pray how comes Parson Caldwell to be so very rich ? I suppose he was another Witherspoon or another McWhorter who thought a part of Christs Kingdom was of this World. My Friend, the Clergy have been in all ages and Countries as dangerous to Liberty as the Army. Yet I love the Clergy and the Army. What can we do without them in this wicked world. But to dismiss all this, what shall we say of Public affairs? The Hounds have all been in fault: wholly OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 241 lost and bewildered. They could not yet Scent the Track of the Fox. They know not which way to pur- sue the Game. I expect the Master Huntsmen will soon point out the Path : one will cry War with France and the other War with England. But they cannot get a vote in Congress for either. I have no hope of any settlement with France or England at present. It is impossible. England asserts a Sovereignty at sea and France almost claims an ab- solute Dominion at Land. We ought not to agree to either. We never can agree to the Claims of England. What shall we do. I am not pleased with embargoes or Non Inter- courses : our People will not bear them. The Unum Necessarium is a Navy : but such is the Division and the Folly of our Country, that no public Man will bear to think of Floating Castles. We shall be the Sport, Scorn and Ridicule of all Nations till we do think in earnest of covering the seas with our armed schoonersand Brigantines. One year would produce at less expense than the Gun Boats a little Power that would secure us more consideration than an hundred Thousand disciplined veteran land Forces. I have not yet got out of my head Fox's little His- tory. Some one of our Poets said how sweet an Ovid was in Murray lost ? I say how noble a Livy or Davila was lost in Fox ? You know that all my Vagaries are locked up in your own Breast. There let them rest. I shall stand by the Government as well as I can, whether I approve their Measures or not, if they are not too bad to be borne. But this I know the most active energetic Por- tion of Mankind, as the Americans undoubtedly are 242 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. cannot be long restrained by Embargoes and Non In- tercourses. They will have the free use of their Limbs whether the Consequence is foreign War or civil War, or what you will. Burn these Rhapsodies and Crudities lest they one day rise up in Judgment against your Friend Dr. Rush. Quincy Septr. 27. 1809. Dear Friend,-I recd. in course yours of the 7th. Fox was a remarkable Character. I admire the Mor- sell of History. Pitt was another. He has left nothing but speeches taken down by stenographers. I cannot pronounce either of them wise statesmen : yet perhaps they were as wise as they could be in their Circum- stances. Great Men they both were, most certainly. Pitt I think was more correct in his Knowledge of the English Constitution and of the subject of Government in General than either Fox or Burke. Both of these have uttered and published very absurd Notions of the Principles of Government. I have seen and read Gregoires Letter with great Pleasure. Have a Care ! Deceive not thyself! There is not an old Fryar in France not in Europe who looks on a blooming young virgin with sang froid. Your Naturam expellas furca is mere infallible Nature. I do and will insist upon t it you are still a Patriot, and you never can cease to be so. Give my Compliments to your son Richards Lady and tell her I love her. I congratulate you most sin- cerely on the acquisition of such a Daughter in Law, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 243 and your son on the inestimable felicity of such a Com- panion for Life. If a Button Maker becomes a Button at last; the Lord knows what I am to be : A Newspaper I fear. I had rather be anything else. You are infinitely better off, if you are to become Sydenhams and Rushes Works. Oh! what would I not give to be a Sydenham or a Rush in Preference to being a Newspaper Writer! Your present employment is Patriotism and what is more and better Philanthropy: far superiour to mine, as I not only fear but believe. In my Line I fear it is impossible to do any good. I hope I shall do no harm. Adieu. J. Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy October 8. 1809. My dear Sir,-Bacon the great Bacon was fond of Paradoxes. What could the old Hunks mean by Great Men having neither Ancestors nor Posterity ? Was not Isaac the son and Jacob the Grandson and Joseph the Great Grandson of Abraham? Was not Julius Caesar the Posterity of Anchises and Eneas? Was not King William the Posterity of the Great William, Prince of Orange and of the still greater Admiral Coligni? Was not William Pitt, a great soul surely, the son of Chatham ? And Richard the son of Benja- min I hope will be as great a Man as his Father. But my Muse sobrius esto. Be pleased to present my kind Thanks to Mr. Rush for the Present of his Pamphlet which I have read with great and sincere Pleasure. It is very well written ; 244 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. and with a degree of Candour Moderation and Modesty which is very uncommon at his age and with his fire. His argument is every way unanswerable and if it has not a great effect in Pensilvania I am greatly mistaken in my Conjectures. The Arbitration Law is so com- pletely absurd that Party and Faction powerful as they are cannot long support it. Mrs. Adams has read it and with so much approbation that she has read it over again to her Children and Grand Children. She thinks it one of the best Pamphlets she ever read. Your State of Pensilvania does great Injury to the Union by her strange Conduct. If she goes on as she has done, she will ultimately ruin the Cause of Repub- licanism and produce the Division of the Union. You claim for her the Merit of sending back the Tea Ships and she has had great Merit on several occasions. But her Conduct has been so anomalous her March so much by Fits and Starts, that the rest of the Union knows not the Motives or Principles that govern her, nor when it is safe to depend upon her. I am as ever yours John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy October 25. 1809. My dear Sir,-I received yesterday your new edi- tion on Animal Life and Madam read it in the evening to me and all the Family, to the great delight and edification of us all. Whether it is all solid or not we cannot say: but there are Ideas enough thrown out to excite and employ the attention and investigation of all the Philosophers, Physicians and Surgeons. Accept of all our Thanks for this favour. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 245 Whether there are more instances in favour of Bacons observation or against it, I believe that almost all Great Men have Mothers at Least. I read in a Journal de Paris many years ago a List of almost all the Great Men who had lived and been famous in France, with an account of their Births, and they were almost all the sons of Tradesmen, Bakers, Brewers, Masons, Carpen- ters, Clothiers, Shoemakers, Cabinet Makers and some of them from Labourers, Livery, Servants and the lowest and meanest occupations in society. I regret that I did not preserve and copy this Catalogue. It was a Proof irrefragable that there is some Truth in Bacons Apophthegm. I believe however that there is in all such instances something more of mind in the father or Mother than is common. Have you never observed that Weavers, Shoemakers and Taylors are the most thoughtful Trades, because they are the most sedentary? Do they not at least produce the most in- quisitive and talkative People ? This is a Topick of inexhaustible speculation. But I believe there is as much in the Breed of Men as there is in that of Horses. I know you will upon reading this cry out Oh the Aris- tocrat! The Advocate for hereditary Nobility! For Monarchy! and every political Evil! But it is no such Thing. I am no advocate for any of these Things. As long as sense and virtue remain in a Nation in sufficient Quantities to enable them to choose their Legislatures and Magistrates, elective Governments are the best in the world. But when Nonsense and Vice get the as- cendency, command the Majority and possess the whole Power of a Nation, the History of Mankind shews that sense and virtue have been compelled to unite with Nonsense and Vice in establishing hereditary Powers i7 246 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. as the only security for Life Property and the miserable Liberty that remains. Let my Countrymen therefore have a Care how they confide in Callender, Paine, Burr or Hamilton for their political Guides. If they do not, Calamities, Devastations, Bloodshed and Carnage will convince them that there is no special Providence for them. They will go the way of all the earth. A Dream again! I wish you would dream all day and all Night, for one of your Dreams puts me in spirits for a Month. I have no other objection to your Dream, but that it is not History. It may be Prophecy. There has never been the smallest Interruption of the Personal Friendship between me and Mr. Jefferson that I know of. You should remember that Jefferson was but a Boy to me. I was at least ten years older than him in age and more than twenty years older than him in Poli- ticks. I am bold to say I was his Preceptor in Politicks and taught him every Thing that has been good and solid in his whole Political Conduct. I served with him on many Committees in Congress in which we estab- lished some of the most important Regulations of the Army &c., &c., &c. Jefferson and Franklin were united with me in a Commission to the King of France and fifteen other Commissions to treat with all the Powers of Europe and Africa. I resided with him in France above a year in 1784 and 1785 and met him every day at my House in Auteuil at Franklins House at Passy or at his House in Paris. In short we lived together in the most per- fect Friendship and Harmony. I was sent to England in 1785. He came to me in England and I travelled over the Kingdom with him. He met me afterwards in Holland. I there instructed OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 247 him in the situation of all my money Matters before I left Europe. I have a Bushell of Letters from him. If I were disposed to be captious I might complain of his open Patronage of Callender, Paine, Brown and twenty others my most abandoned and unprincipled enemies. But I have seen Ambition and Party in so many Men of the best Character of all Parties that I must renounce almost all Mankind if I renounce any for such Causes. Fare them all well. Heaven is their Judge and mine. I am not conscious that I ever injured any of them in thought word or deed to promote my own Interest or Reputation or to lessen theirs. Let them one and all say the same if they can. I am &c., Dr. Rush. John Adams. Quincy December 21. 1809. My dear Sir,-I thank you for the pleasing account of your Family in your favour of the 5th. As I take a lively interest in their Prosperity and Felicity, your re- lation of it gave me great Pleasure. We have Letters from our Colony navigating the Baltic, dated at Chris- tiansand. They had been so far as prosperous, healthy and happy as such Travellers could expect to be. Pope said of my Friend General Oglethorpe Some driven by strong Benevolence of soul Shall fly like Oglethorpe from Pole to Pole. But what was a Trip to Georgia in Comparison with the Journeys and Voyages that J. Q. Adams has per- formed? I do not believe that Admiral Nelson ever ran greater Risques at sea. 248 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Tell Richard that I hope Mrs. Rush will soon present him with a son that will do him as much honour in pro- portion, as the first born of his Genius has already done him in the opinion of the world. W. S. S. our Guardian of the Athenaeum has obtained it and proclaimed it loudly every where the best Pamphlet that ever he read. Be sure you do not hint this to Mrs. Rush Senr. It would allarm her Delicacy. I really do not know whether I do not envy your City of Philadelphia for its Reputation for Science, Arts and Letters and especially its Medical Professor. I know not either whether I do not envy you your Genius and Imagination. Why have not I some Fancy ? some Invention ? some Ingenuity ? some discursive Faculty ? Why has all my Life been consumed in searching for Facts and Principles and Proofs and Reasons to sup- port them? Your Dreams and Fables have more Genius in them than all my Life. Your Fable of Dor- cas would make a good Chapter or a good Appendix to The Tale of a Tub. But my Friend there is something very serious in this Business. The Holy Ghost carries on the whole Chris- tian system in this earth. Not a Baptism, not a Marriage not a Sacrament can be administered but by the Holy Ghost, who is transmitted from age to age by laying the hands of the Bishops on the heads of Candidates for the Ministry. In the same manner as the holy Ghost is transmitted from Monarch to Monarch by the holy oil in the vial at Rheims which was brought down from Heaven by a Dove and by that other Phyal which I have seen in the Tower of London. There is no Authority civil or religious: there can be no legitimate Govern- ment but what is administered by this Holy Ghost. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 249 There can be no salvation without it. All, without it is Rebellion and Perdition, or in more orthodox words Damnation. Although this is all Artifice and Cunning in the secret original in the heart, yet they all believe it so sincerely that they would lay down their Lives under the Ax or the fiery Fagot for it. Alas the poor weak ignorant Dupe human Nature. There is so much King Craft, Priest Craft, Gentlemens Craft, Peoples Craft, Doctors Craft, Lawyers Craft, Merchants Craft, Trades- mens Craft, Labourers Craft and Devils Craft in the world, that it seems a desperate and impracticable Pro- ject to undeceive it. Do you wonder that Voltaire and Paine have made Proselytes ? Yet there was as much subtlety, Craft and Hypocrisy in Voltaire and Paine and more too than in Ignatius Loyola. This Letter is so much in the tone of my Friend the Abby Raynal and the Grumblers of the last age, that I pray you to burn it. I cannot copy it. Your Prophecy my dear Friend has not become History as yet. I have no Resentment or Animosity against the Gentleman and abhor the Idea of blackening his Character or transmitting him in odious Colours to Posterity. But I write with difficulty and am afraid of diffusing myself in too many Correspondences. If I should re- ceive a Letter from him however I should not fail to acknowledge and answer it. The Auroras you sent me for which I thank you, are full of Momentous Matter. I am Dear Sir with every friendly sentiment yours Dr. Rush. J. Adams. 250 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy January 21. 1810. Learned, ingenious, benevolent, beneficent old Friend of 1774,-Thanks for "the Light and Truth" as I used to call the Aurora, which you send me. You may descend in a Calm : but I have lived fifty years in a storm and shall certainly die in one. I never asked my son any questions about the Motives, Designs or Objects of his Mission to Petersbourg. If I had been weak enough to ask, he would have been wise enough to be silent: for although a more dutiful or affectionate son is not in existence he knows his obliga- tions to his Country and his Trust are superiour to all Parental requests or Injunctions. I know therefore no more of his errand than any other Man. If he is ap- pointed to be a Sampson to tie the Foxes together by their Tails with a Torch or Firebrand between them I know nothing of it. One thing I know. We ought to have had an Ambassador there these thirty years and we should have had if Congress had not been too com- plaisant to Vergennes. Mr. Dana was upon the Point of being received, and had a solemn promise of a Reception when he was recalled. Under all the Cir- cumstances of those Times however I cannot very se- verely blame Congress for this Conduct tho I think it was an error. It is of great Importance to us at present to know more than we do of the views, In- terests and Sentiments of all the Northern Powers. If we do not acquire more knowledge than we have of the present and probable future state of Europe, we shall be hood winked and bubbled by the French and English. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 251 Of Mr. Jackson, his Talents, Knowledge manners or Morals I know nothing but am not unwilling to think favourably of them all. His Conduct to our President and his Minister is not however a Letter of Recom- mendation of his Temper, Policy or Discretion. His Lady was an intimate acquaintance of my Daughter and consequently well known to both my sons at Berlin. Thomas speaks very handsomely of her Person and accomplishments. I have not seen but am impatient to see Mr. Cheet- hams Life of Mr. Paine. His political writings I am singular enough to believe have done more harm than his irreligious ones. He understood neither Govern- ment nor Religion. From a malignant heart he wrote virulent Declamations, which the enthusiastic Fury of the Times intimidated all Men even Mr. Burke from answering as he ought. His Deism as it appears to me has promoted rather than retarded the Cause of Revelation at least in America and indeed in Europe. His Bilingsgate stolen from Blounts oracles of Reason, from Bolinbroke, Voltaire, Berenger &c. will never dis- credit Christianity: which will hold its Ground in some degree as long as human Nature shall have any Thing Moral or intellectual left in it. The Christian Religion as I understand it, is the Brightness of the Glory and the express Portrait of the Character of the eternal self existent independent benevolent all powerful and allmercifull Creator, Preserver and Father of the Uni- verse ; the first good first perfect and first fair. It will last as long as the World. Neither Savage nor civilized Man without a Revelation could ever have discovered or invented it. Ask me not then whether I am a Cath- olic or Protestant, Calvinist or Armenian ? As far as 252 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. they are Christians, I wish to be a Fellow Disciple with them all. I am my Dear Rush your affectionate John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Feb. u. 1810. Dear Sir,-Thanks for yours of the first and the two Packetts. Who are they who furnish the Aurora with such an infinite quantity and variety of Composi- tions ? There must be many hands of no small Ca- pacity or Information. In one you sent me before, there was an Anecdote of a Plan of Washington to attack Philadelphia which was communicated to Gen- eral Howe by a Person in his Confidence. The Narrator affirms he was intimate with Washington and daily at his Quarters. I have a Curiosity to know who this old Man may be. I can think of no human Being, who can support the Pretension. Your Letter is so grave a Mixture of Religion and Politicks, that I wish I had eyes Fingers and Time to write you an answer to it of a mile long. You will "patiently submit to our Rulers, let them do what they will." Not so Tittle Top I. No factious opposition for me. No lying down of Government for me. But if our Government will substitute Virginia Fence for the Wooden Walls of Columbia as our Friend Jefferson did, I will not applaud. I will disapprove and modestly complain : and I cannot answer for myself that I shall not say in some unguarded Moment to a confidential Friend who may betray me, Midas ! Le Roy Midas a Les Oreilles d'Ane. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 253 You seem to have borrowed, my Friend, from Tom Paine a kind of hatred to Government and to take Pleasure in representing it in an odious and disgusting Liodit. "Was not Government one of the Curses of o Adams Fall." If I were disposed to be merry, I would ask you was not the Fall of Man owing to the want of Government in Paradise ? Had Adam possessed and exerted the proper Authority and Power of Govern- ment he would have tamed the shrew who betrayed him and us. Pardon this appearance of Levity on a subject which ought always to be treated with Rever- ence. Are not Doctors, Lawyers, Priests, Merchants, Armies, Navies, Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries, Wheat, Rye, Barley, Buckwheat, Wine, Oyl, Cyder, Beer, Punch, Flip, Slings, Drams, Shirts, Sheets, Wool, and Silk all the Curses of the Fall of Man ? Yes every one of them ; as much as Government, Jails, Stocks and Whipping Posts. Why should we loose ourselves in Lucubrations about allegories or Mysteries which never can be explained or comprehended in this world : when all our Brains ought to be employed upon the present Means of extricating us out of our Difficulties? It is altogether beyond the Grasp, and out of the sphere of human understanding to comprehend what would have been the state of this Globe and what the Condi- tion of the human Race if the state of Innocence had been continued. We shall only loose ourselves and fall into absurdities by Conjectures. Feb. 23. 1810. The Christian Religion is to flame through the universe in universal Love, excepting the Devil and his angels, and their Imps and Dupes. What is to become of these ? Will they be annihilated ? or 254 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. will they repent, reform and be forgiven ? or will they remain ? Some of them seem to deserve unlimited Pun- ishment : but I dare not dogmatize on this subject. I have not found in my Walks that Paine has made Infidelity general among the common People. They have seemed to me rather allarmed. They asked are these the Notions in which we are to bring up our Children ? This will never do. It will be fitting them for the Gallows. It is very true as you observe England and The Tories have become very demure since France and the Jacobins so impudently insulted Religion. All my Theology is summed up in your sentence " They only who have done good shall come forth to the Resurrection unto Life." I have never regularly read the works of Dr. Hart- ley. My Fire side to yours send Greeting. J. Adams. Our Electioneering Racers have started for the Prize. Such a whipping and spurring and Huzzaing! Oh what rare sport it will be! Through thick and thin, through Mire and Dirt, through Bogs and Fens and Sloughs dashing and splashing and crying out, the Devil take the hindmost. How long will it be possible that Honor, Truth or virtue should be respected among a People who are engaged in such a quick and perpetual succession of such profligate Collisions and Conflicts. Mr. Gerry vs Mr. Gore and Mr. Gray vs Mr. Cobb are the Candidates, this heat. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 255 Quincy May 14. 1810. Dear Sir,-What can I say to my Friend in return for his Letter of 26 April ? My Grief for the melan- cholly Fate of my Friend John is only equalled by my sympathy with his amiable Family. In the midst of Grief remember Mercy. Richard remains to you as well as another son and several Daughters who do honor to their Parents and their Country. Oh that John had imitated the example of his Father, and answered " I am not afraid to die but I fear God." Dr. Rush and his son have exhibited to Mankind two examples, which ought to discredit Duelling more than any I have ever heard or read. The one by pleading Principle against the barbarous Custom : and the other by the terrible Remorse and fatall Consequences of violating that Principle. I still pray and will hope that he will be recovered and restored and remonstrate to the end of his Life against a practice which is not only against the Laws of God and Man ; but is peculiarly de- testible in this Country because I believe it to be totally incompatible with a really free Republican Govern- ment. It is as despotic a Tyranny over the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing as the Bastile the In- quisition or the Police of the Bourbons or Napoleons. How can I turn my Thoughts from this sublime and pathetic subject in which Morality Religion Laws Lib- erty and Government are so deeply interested to that Gossamour that idles in the wanton summer air John Randolph ! The Character of him in the Aurora is well drawn and in some respects just; but makes too much of him. You have expressed in two or three Lines the Truth the whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth. A 256 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Boy with a mischievous syringe in his hand full of dirty water. The only good or great Thing he ever did in his Life that I know of was his refusal of Wilkinson's Challenge. His example and that of Harper, whatever were their motives ought to be sett up for Imitation. This Letter will be full of sentiment sympathy and Feeling. The day before yesterday I went to Hingham to convoy to the Tomb my ancient my invariable and inestimable Friend Lincoln. Six Skelletons or walking shadows among whom I was one, were the Paul Holders. Mr. Millville and Lieut. Gereker Cob, Mr. Cranch and Dr. Tufts, one 84 the other 80, Judge Paine at 80 and John Adams at 74 were the Men. A cold unanimated and ignorant sketch of his Life and Character was pronounced by his own Parson in a funeral sermon. A long Train to be sure of Relations and Neighbours walked in Procession. No Arms ; No Militia, no Regulars ! A few, very few Gentlemen from Boston. Governor Gore, to do him Justice, attended. Recollect the Mock Funerals of Washington Hamil- ton and Ames. Lincolns Education, his Reading his general Knowledge, his Talent at Composition was superiour to Washingtons : his services more arduous dangerous and difficult than Washingtons. How long will fraud prevail over Honesty? Hypoc- risy over Sincerity in this sublunary Chaos? But my Friend there is a subject that hangs with more weight upon my Mind than all these, at present. South America is an object of immense Magnitude. Its Independence will for what I know produce greater Convulsions and Revolutions upon this Globe than that of North America. It is a Question which will now force itself upon the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 257 Consideration of our Nation. It is of vast Importance that we should form correct Ideas and obtain accurate Information on this subject. The human universe is asleep, but it must awake. How will the Independence of S. America affect the Destiny of the U. S. ? How will it affect all the Powers of Europe ? How will it affect the whole of Asia and Africa ? The whole Globe the whole human Race is interested, deeply interested in it. Let us be cool and sober if we can. It is a more difficult Question than our own Independence. I could write to you a volume upon this subject, if I had eyes and fingers. But I must soon follow my Friend Lincoln and leave to young Men, who seem to me to have no Ideas nor any desire to acquire any, but for getting Money and writing in a pretty style. Such at this moment is the peevish Temper of your old Friend John Adams. Have you seen Bristeds broad Hints ? If you ever see or hear of The Boston Patriot, you will see some- thing in that of last Saturday and next Wednesday you will see something relative to him and South America. I should be glad to see the Aurora speculations upon it, if any, and to know the small Talk of the Philadelphia Politicians. Does S. A. make any great Figure in Mr. Whartons system of Prophecies ? Dr. Rush. Quincy June 28. 1810. Friend,-I acknowledge my fault in neglecting to answer two or three of your last favours. I now thank you for the Letters and the " Light and Truth" as I used to call the Aurora. 258 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. What are we to think of all these adventurers ? Tom Paine, Cobbet, Duane, Carpenter, Walsh, Bristed ? with twenty &cs. Are they all sent out here, by administra- tions or opposition, French or English, Scotch or Irish? Our Country, my dear Friend, is an object of specu- lation in Europe among Politicians as much as the poor soldiers Certificates were among Hamiltons Patriots in America. Duane and Cobbet are in a fair way I think to co- operate in the same great Cause of Sir Francis Burdet, Col. Wardle, Democracy and Revolution. They seem to be greeting each other, as Callender and Colman did, after the former had declared war against Jefferson. Is our Country, my Friend, to be the Puppet danced on the Wires of such Men ? Has America no soul ? Is there no Genius in it ? Is there no Feeling ? Is there none to mount the Breach ? All that you and I could do would be to fall upon our swords like Cato : but that would do no good. Time was, when Men were not wanting to expose themselves to danger. Young Men, who had Forces of Mind and Body. In your last Letter, June 20, you do not say whether Napoleone or Nerone Neronior as we sometimes called our Great Hammer 30 or 40 years ago, is now meant by Jeremiahs Hammer of the whole earth. Britain is the Hammer of Asia Africa and America as well as Europe. France is a Hammer to Europe only and to America when she sends her sons and Ships to Europe. Come out of the Clouds, Doctor and let me see your Face and shape. I know you will not: and I do not, I cannot blame you. The two Hammers maul the world, the sea as well as OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 259 the Land. Our United States are mauled by both. I am no Prophet. But I believe that Jeremiah if he could be consulted, would say that both those Hammers whether of Brass or Iron or Steel or Adamant must sooner or later be cut asunder and broken by America. Empire marches Westward and will carry its Arms with it, for without them it cannot exist in spight of all the Pacific Philosophy of your Friend Jefferson and yourself. Now, I know you will not say one word to me, in answer to this Rapsody. I shall continue ignorant of your sentiments. But I shall not love you the less. Continue to love me, let me know the progressive Happiness and good Fortune of your Children, send me now and then a Dream, or a Fable or an Epigram with a good Point and a pure Moral, and you will be sure of the Gratitude of your old Friend Dr. Rush. John Adams. Quincy September i. 1810. Dear Sir,-I have been entertained and diverted with the Humour and the Wit of my old Friend O Brian as you call him. The JackAss and the Cow are most excellent animals in their own way and their own sphere. None more usefull. But neither is very well qualified for Legislators or Politicians: or to pursue the figure and hunt down the allegory Neither would make a Figure at the New Markett Races or in draw- ing his Britannic Majesty's Coach of State, or even along side The Lord Mayors Horse. And these curious Figures bring to Mind The Lect- ures for which you thank me. I have no Pretensions 260 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. to your Gratitude or Politeness on this occasion. The Books were sent you by Thomas Boylston Adams in complyance with positive orders from his Brother John Quincy Adams in writing, before his Departure for St. Petersbourg. I am very angry with Thomas for not writing you a formal and ceremonious Letter when he sent the Books explaining all these important Cir- cumstances. I have not seen the Port Folio for several years. Who is the Editor of it now? Is Mr. Dennie still the Editor? Do you know that Man? There is not in England a more zealous Englishman : and as J. 0. A. has now every Englishman in the Universe for his Enemy, it is not wonderful that an Englishman should slurr the Productions of an American. The Scotch and English are now united. They all agree that if all Dr. Rush's works were annihilated, human knowledge would re- ceive no Diminution. When we recollect that those Lectures were the work of but about two years, and the greatest part of those years spent in the Senate at Washington, and when he was at home encumbered with the Cares of a Family, and the Management of a considerable share of Busi- ness at the Bar and his private Property: When we recollect that Blairs Lectures were the Work of four and Twenty years and Professor Wards of sixteen years, our American Homespun will not appear a con- temptible Manufacture. I would hazard my Life that Longinus Quintilian and Cicero in Counsel would pro- nounce it vastly superiour to Blair Ward or any other work upon oratory English or Scotch. Originality is not to be expected from a Teacher of Oratory in this age of the World. Yet I am confident OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 261 there is more originality in these Lectures than in all the other writings upon oratory now existing in English Scotch or Irish. I have an urgent Curiosity to know who is Mr. Walsh of Baltimore? is he a Scot, or the Son of a Scot? I know he is a Pupill of the Edinborough Reviewers: and that he is employed to teach Doctrines which they profess too much Candour and Impartiality to avow. Who is also Mr. Bristed who has published such broad Hints ? I am as ever yours John Adams. Dr. Rush Quincy September 16. 1810. Dear Sir,-I am much obliged by your favour of the Sth. Oh how I wish I had time to write and you Patience to read The Anecdote I could dictate concern- ing "Chapmans" in New England. All "able bodied Men." I deceived you a little by an Inference of my own from what the Edinborough Reviewers had written. I know not that they have mentioned you by Name or your Works by their Titles: but I read in them "If every Thing which has ever been written in America [if you. except perhaps the Works of Franklin] were annihilated the sum total of human knowledge would in no degree be lessened." I drew the Inference, for Dr. Rush's Works have been written and printed in America. I have felt as well as you The Odium Theologium, the Odium Politicum, and The Odium Mercatorium. Happily I have escaped as far as I know The Odium i8 262 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Philologium, The Odium Medicum and The Odium Sanguiphobium. I have escaped these Hatreds because I never knew enough about any of them to excite any other Mans Jealousy or Envy. But now I must tell you a great and grave Truth. I am one among your most serious haters of the Philo- logical Species. I do most cordially hate you for writing against Latin Greek and Hebrew. I never will forgive you untill you repent, retract and reform. No Never! It is impossible. I thank you for the Sketch of Mr. Walsh. His Pam- phlet is but a Second Edition of the Cabinet of H. Cleod, a little disguised. It is all a Phantastical Delusion. The Religion of his Father and The Praeceptors of his Education are enough to convince us with whom he conversed in France. And his Residence in Scotland and Connection with The Edinborough Reviewers suffi- ciently explain his Information on British Affairs. There is one Gentleman whose Name is Richard Rush quite capable of answering Mr. Walsh. But I do not think it worth while. There is a French Pamphlet by my old Friend Sir Francis D'lvernois " Effets Du Blocus Continental sur le Credit, et La Prosperite Des Isles Britanniques leur Commerce et Finances" of much more Importance. He proves to a Demonstration as he thinks that our Embargo and Bonapartes Continental System have greatly assisted and increased the Commerce Credit Wealth Manufactures Agriculture and Power of Great Britain ! !! Votre Blocus ne bloque point Et grace a votre heureuse adresse Ceux que vous affamez sans cesse Ne periront que D'Embonpoint. 263 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. All the Political Pamphlets I see, of modern date, are Paradoxes. Some whimsical Maxim or other, like Jean Jaques Philippic against Arts and Sciences, is the Theme of every one. I see nothing like a sober investigation of the Truth. " My Family Name" ! Why my Family Name, to my Knowledge is scattered all over Europe and America : in Spain, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Italy: there are Millions of them. What are they to me? No more than all the Posterity of Adam our common ancestor. The Whistling of a Name does as much hurt as good as the Rushes as well as The Adamses and Hancocks will find. We shall be damn'd like Crom- well if a conspiracy of Nations especially English and French with The Tories can effect it, to everlasting Purgatory. I wish Richard would read Bristed. Let him see what emmisaries are sent here, and for what purpose. Let him inquire too into his Bristeds Connections in America. I do not ask you to read him. I know you cannot. Your Professional Duties forbid it. Your Volume of Lectures will be very acceptable here, not only to your Friend Mrs. Adams but to the Physicians and Philosophers here. For "The Family Name of Rush" is respected here more than it is in Philadelphia. Rush! Every persecuted Man, persecuted because he is envied, must be an Egotist or an Hypocrite. You and I must therefore cordially embrace the Character of Egotists and acknowledge the Imputation of Vanity, or be totally overborne or become lying Hypocrites, which you will swear you will not. So will I. Pardon me for concluding this Rhodomontade by a 264 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. very serious Paragraph. Yesterday were committed to the Tomb the Remains of William Cushing a Judge of the National Supreme Court. Fifty nine years, has he been known to me and esteemed and beloved as an invariable Friend. A Judge for Forty years of un- blemished Character. My Contemporaries are almost all gone and left me almost alone. I wait in silence and Resignation for my Turn. Untill it arrives I shall cherish Rush at least, as another invariable Friend to John Adams. Dr. Rush. P.S.-I have read the Criticisms in The Port Folio on The Lectures and been much disappointed. They are almost entirely litteral grammatical and Typographical and in general just and remark faults that ought to be corrected. His Discussion of The Question about "Purity" I have not considered attentively enough to form an opinion. His observation that the Plan is not origi- nal but the same with that of Quintilian is not as I be- lieve exactly just, but if it were I should think it no fault nor Imperfection. The Writer is sparing of Praise. He is probably no Friend to The Professors Poli- ticks, too much of an Englishman perhaps. But there is another Cause. New York and Philadelphia are as frugal of Praise to Boston as Britons are to Ameri- cans. It is an instinctive antipathy. If you are well informed and really candid and impartial you must acknowledge that there is a dirty and ignorant Jealousy and Envy of New England in Pensilvania and New York, which must soon be eradicated or the Union will OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 265 soon feel Calamities which will remove those Prejudices when it may be too late, or rivet them into National Hostility. Quincy October 13. 1810. Dear Sir,-Mrs. Adams says she is willing you should discredit Greek and Latin, because it will destroy the foundation of all the Pretensions of the Gentlemen to superiority over the Ladies, and restore Liberty, Equality and Fraternity between the sexes. What does Mrs. Rush think of this ? Hobbes calumniated the Classicks because they filled young Mens heads with Ideas of Liberty, and excited them to rebellion against Leviathan. Suppose we should agree to study the oriental Lan- guages especially the Arabic, instead of Greek and Latin. This would not please the Ladies so well, but it would gratify Hobbes much better. According to many present appearances in the world many useful Lessons and deep Maxims might be learned from the Asiatic writers. There are great Models of Heroes and Conquerors fit for the Imitation of the Emperors of Britain and France. For example in the Life of Timur Bee, or Tamerlane the Great we read vol. i, p. 202 " It was Timurs ambition of universal empire which caused him to undertake such glorious actions. He has been often heard to say, that it was neither agreable nor decent, that the habitable world should be governed by two Kings : according to the words of the Poet, as there is but one God, there ought to be but one King, all the earth being very small in comparison 266 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. of the Ambition of a great Prince." Where can you find in any Greek or Roman writer a sentiment so sub- lime and edifying for George and Napoleon. There are some faint Traces of it in the Conduct of Alexander and Caesar but far less frank and noble, and these have been imprudently branded with Infamy by Greek and Roman orators and Historians. There is an abun- dance more of such profound Instruction in the Life of this Tamerlane as well as in that of Gengizcan, both of which I believe Napoleon has closely studied. With Homer in one Pocket, Caesars Commentaries in the other, Quintus Curtius under his Pillow, and the Lives of Mahomet, Gengizcan and Tamerlane in his Port Folio, and Polybius Folard, Montecucculi, Charlemagne, Charles Twelfth, Charles 5th. cum multis aliis among his Baggage this Man has formed himself: but the Classics among them have damped his ardor and prevented his rising as yet to the lofty Heights of the Asiatic Em- perors. Would it not be better that George and Na- poleon should forget all their Classicks and mount at once to all sublimities of Mahomet, Gengizcan and Tamerlane ? In that case one or the other must soon succumb : and would it not be better that one such should govern the Globe than two ? Oct. 15. Thus far I had written when your favour of the 8th. with your Invention a Tranquillizer was given to me from the Post Office. The Tranquillizer is a very ingenious Mechanical Invention and I hope will be ben- eficial to that most deplorable portion of our species for whom it is intended. But to be serious, if I were pos- sessed of sovereign Power over your Hospital, [pro- vided I could do it secretly so that no Mortal should know it, but you and I] I would put you into your own OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 267 Tranquillizer, till I cured you of your Fanaticism against Greek and Latin. The Greek Testament cannot be read to effectual advantage, without a comprehensive knowledge and critical skill, in all the Grecian Litterature. The World had never seen a Milton if a Homerand Virgil had not lived before him : nor any one of the Poets orators or Historians you mention among the English, Scotch or Irish or French if Greece and Rome had not furnished them Models. My Friend you will labour in vain. As the Love of Science and Taste for the Fine Arts increases in the World, the admiration of Greek and Roman Science and Litterature will increase. Both are increasing very fast. Your Labourswill be as useless as those of Tom Paine against the Bible, which are already fallen dead and almost forgotten. Our Financial System and our Banks are a species of fraudulent oppression upon the Community. But you would think me mad enough for your Tranquil- lizing Chair if I should say there is no Remedy but to return to a circulating Medium of Gold and Silver only. Commerce has in all times made wild work with elec- tions, but it never invented so artful a scheme of Cor- ruption for that purpose as our American Banks. I am almost as gloomy as Ames. At times I see nothing to prevent our Country both North and South America from becoming in another Century if not in this, a Theatre for Gengizcans, Mahomets, Tamerlanes, Charlemagnes, Napoleons, Burrs and Hamiltons. Our People are the shrewdest and most sagacious that I know, but yet they are so easily deceived, and are in fact 268 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. so universally deceived in many essential Points, that they afford no certain Resource for honest and able Men : and for what I see they will not open their eyes till they themselves will be obliged to have recourse to the Ratio Ultima Populorum, Rerum Publicarum et Regum. We know how this always ends. Of the Strictures on Ames's Works we have not a Copy in the World. The Printer sent us two or three at the Time : but Mrs. Adams has given them all away to one friend or another who wished to have them. I will endeavor to procure one for your son : but am not certain that it is to be had. I am as ever John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy December 27th. 1810. Dear Sir,-It was but yesterday that I was able to obtain the enclosed Review of Works of Mr. Ames, which you or rather your son wished to see. You and I are so much better employed that I pre- sume Political Pamphlets are beneath your Notice as well as mine. You are employed in healing the sick and extending the Empire of Science and Humanity. I, in reading Romances in which I take incredible De- light. I have read within a few weeks : let me see : in the first Place Oberon in two Translations, one by John Quincy Adams and the other by Sotheby two refined Translators, though neither has as yet acquired a rep- utation as an original Poet. This Romantic, Heroic Poem of Wieland is all enchantment in every sense of the word. In the next Place. The Scottish Chiefs, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 269 which is superiour to Oberon, and beyond all Compari- son the noblest Romance in the world. It is better tho not so classical as Don Quixotte or Telemachus or Sir Charles Grandison. In the third Place The Lady of the Lake. In the fourth place The Lay of the last Minstrel. In the fifth Place, I intend to read Marmion as soon as I can get it. In the sixth Place, The Edinburg Reviews, as entertaining Romances to me as any of the former. These Fellows pretend to all knowledge and they have a great deal. But they resemble their Creolian Coun- tryman Alex Hamilton. They can hammer out a Guinea into an Acre of Leaf Gold. I read with Pleasure, in their Review of the fourth Report of the Directors of The African Institution, Vol. 16. p. 434 an honourable Tribute of Respect to Dr. Rush President of the Abolition Society &c. Have the Scotts monopolized all the Genius of the three Kingdoms? All the Litterature comes from them at present. I neither read nor hear of any Eng- lishman of any fame. These Scottish and German Romances show in a clear light the Horrors of the Feudal Aristocracy as the Histories of Gengizcan and Tamerlane shew the same Anarchy in the Asiatic Aristocracy. In Europe and in Asia they all ended in Despotism or in Simple Monarchy. And how will our Aristocracy proceed and end? Will our State Governors become Abthanes ? Vir- gina, Pensilvania and Massachusetts have given broad Hints. Every Government is an Aristocracy in Fact. The Despotism of Gengizcan was an Aristocracy. The Government of the most popular French Convention 270 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. or National Assembly was an Aristocracy. The most democratical Canton in Switzerland was an Aristocracy. The most levelling Town Meeting in New England is an Aristocracy. The Empire of Napoleon is an Aris- tocracy. The Government of G. Britain Is an Aristoc- racy. But as they The Aristocrats are always ambitious and avaricious The Rivalries among them, split them into Factions and tear the People to Pieces. The great secret of Liberty is to find means to limit their Power and control their Passions. Rome and Britain have done it best. Perhaps we shall do better than either. God knows. The pretty little warbling Canary Bird Fisher Ames sang of the Dangers of American Liberty. I had preached in "The Defence" and the "Discourses of Davila" and held up in a Thousand Mirrors all those Dangers and more twenty years before him. Ames had got my Ideas and examples by heart. There was not a Man in the world who read my Books with more ardour, or expressed so often an admiration of them. But Ames's Misfortune was that the sordid Avarice which he imputes to the whole Body of the American People belongs chiefly if not exclusively to his own Friends The Aristocrats or rather The Oligarchs who now rule the Federal Party. But I forbear and spare your Patience. I am as ever, and I think more and more vour Friend Dr. Rush. John Adams. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 271 Quincy Deer. 27th. 1810. Dear Sir,-I sent my wife to the Post Office this morning with a Letter to you enclosing a Review of Fisher Ames and as she brought me back yours of the 21 you will receive this by the same mail. I am well and my good Madam is well at the present Hour but she is a Weather Glass. I am afraid your prejudices are too fixed to be re- moved by any arguments: but I do not find that you make many Proselytes. In Europe the Classicks are more studied than they have been for an hundred years. Sothebys Translation into English and DeLisles into French of the Georgicks, and innumerable Translations of other Greek and Roman Orators Poets and Histo- rians as well as Philosophers have brought them into Fashion with fresh enthusiasm. John Quincy Adams has excited in our University a Rage for them which never existed before in any Part of America and which will never be lost in a hundred years and I hope not in all ages. The ancient Models of Composition are the most perfect and the examples of public virtue the most splendid that our dull and vicious world has ever exhibited. I agree that Rulers become Tyrants from Passion not Instinct: but Aristocrats and Democrats have the same Passions with Kings and become Tyrants from those Passions whenever they have opportunity, as certainly and often more cruelly than Kings. Aristocratical Tyrants are the worst species of all; and Sacerdotal Tyrants have been the worst of Aristocratical Tyrants in all ages and Nations. I can never too often repeat that Aristocracy is The Monster to be chained : yet so chained 272 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. as not to be hurt, for he is a most usefull and necessary animal in his Place. Nothing can be done without him. It is to no purpose to declaim against the Crimes of Kings. The Crimes of Aristocrats are more numerous and more atrocious. And are almost universally at least generally the Cause of the Crimes of Kings. Bind Aristocracy then with a double Cord. Shut him up in a Cage. From which however he may be let out to do good but never to do Mischief. The Banking Infatuation pervades all America. Our whole system of Banks is a violation of every honest Principle of Banks. There is no honest Bank but a Bank of Deposit. A Bank that issues Paper at Interest is a Pickpocket or a Robber. But the Delusion will have its Course. You may as well reason with a Hurri- cane. An Aristocracy is growing out of them, that will be as fatal as The Feudal Barons, if unchecked in Time. The Banks were anteriour to Funding System, and therefore I cannot attribute all our evils to that. Paper Money was better than this Bank Money, because the Public reaped the benefit of the Depreciation : but the Depreciation of Bank Money accrues wholly to the Profit of Individuals. There is no honest Money but Silver and Gold. Think of the Number, the Offices, Stations, Wealth, Piety and Reputations of the Persons in all the States, who have made Fortunes by these Banks, and then you will see how deeply rooted the evil is. The Number of Debtors who hope to pay their debts by this Paper united with the Creditors who build Pallaces in our Cities and Castles for Country Seats, by issuing this Paper form too impregnable a Phalanx to be attacked by any Thing less disciplined than Roman Legions. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 273 If you or I were to attempt to preach against this abuse we should soon,hear a Cry not only of the baser sort, but of the better sort of " Great is Mammon of the Aristocrats," which no Town Clerk of Ephesus could ever silence. You suggest danger to our elections. I could tell you very curious Anecdotes of Elections carried by these Banks and Elections lost. Dr. Tufts of Wey- mouth, and Peter Boylston Adams my Brother lost their Elections in 1793 by a single vote of each against our Union Bank. Two honester Men, or more disin- terested, or independent, can no where be found ; no, nor more popular Men. Yet both fell sacrifices to a single vote against a Bank. These two Cases were so remarkable, such decisive demonstration of Banking Corruption that they ought to be detailed and held up as Beacons. But they would have no effect. Millions of Instances like them have happened since all over the Continent, and so many would be conscious of sim- ilar Guilt, that they would think themselves insulted. In a future Letter I will give you a more circumstantial account of these two Instances of the Republican Purity and disinterestedness of our elections if you desire it. I will tell you also of another election lost, that of J. Q. Adams, and a curious History of Aristocratical Cor- ruption of Skinner and Bidwell to carry a Bank. To leave off a Letter to Dr. Rush, is a much harder task than to begin one, to your old Friend John Adams. P.S.-I insist upon knowing Richards opinion or yours of The Review of Ames. 274 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy January 17. 1811. Dear Sir,-Your favour of the 10th. is just come from the Post Office. I thank you for reading the Pamphlet, which considering the more interesting Stud- ies and Labours of your Profession, I consider as a favour. With your Letter I received a Packet of Let- ters from my son and Daughter at Petersbourg, dates as late as 25 October. I wish I could print these Letters, but I dare not. A Fathers Partiality will no doubt concur with you and your son, in your favourable opinions of The Review of Ames. The English, The Scotch and the Irish may boast of themselves as they will, and despise America as much as they can: but I know of no Pro- ductions of Robertson, Hume, Gibbon or Johnson, which exhibit a more entire Mastery of The English Tongue, and all its Graces, ornaments and elegance, than this little Pamphlet and several other Productions of the same Pen. Ames was ingenious, had read a good deal, and was a fair Character and a good Man: but he owed his Rise, and was buoyed up by a British Faction and the Remnants and Shreds of old Toryism, as an egg is borne upon the surface of a strong Lie. It was not in him, nor in the Citizens who removed to Nova Scotia, Canada and England in 1776, a monarchical Mania but a Mania of fear and ambition : Fear that we should be conquered and beheaded; and ambition to obtain wealth and Power by the favour of Great Britain. I have received with great pleasure your sons opin- ion ; and in a style equal to the subject of his Pan- egyrick. I hope I shall receive more of his favours. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 275 What shall I say to you on the subject of Corruption ? Elections engender it as naturally and I fear as unavoid- ably as excessive Heat in Summer sours bread or taints meat. You may trace it in a thousand Instances and in various ways already : besides Dr. Donne's in his fourth Satyr as versified by Pope. Who in the secret deals in stocks secure And cheats th' unknowing Widow and the poor Who makes the Trust of Charity a job, And gets an Act of Parliament to rob : Why turnpikes rise, and now no Cit or Clown Can gratis see the Country or the Town. Shortly no lad shall chuck or Lady vole, But some excising Courtier will have Toll. He tells what Strumpet places sells for Life What Squire his Lands, what Citizen his Wife. I will give you an Anecdote to answer yours of the Bribe offered to General Muhlenbourg for his vote in favour of the Funding System. J. Q. A. was offered fifty shares in our Boston Bank for his vote in favour of it. He refused and opposed the Institution, which first provoked the eternal vengeance of the Junto. His opposition in the Senate would have prevailed if the Federalists had not won over Skinner and Bidwell the two famous uncorrupted Republicans who made them a bare Majority of one vote. I can give you an- other Anecdote of a more allarming kind. Mr. King told me, that General Gun assured him that Mr. Swan offered him Ten Thousand Dollars for his vote and In- fluence, in a Question in the Senate, and I have been informed that a large sum of Money was shipped in Hambourg for Philadelphia for the express purpose of promoting and securing the first election of Mr. Jeffer- 276 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. son as President. Venal Presses and venal Scriblers have undoubtedly been supported by French and Eng- lish Intrigues. Corruption from abroad and Corruption at home we shall no doubt have in abundance. I will barely hint at two Instances of Corrupt Influ- ence of Banks. Dr. Tufts one of the best Men in the world, had been chosen a Senator for near twenty years I believe, and the last year he had an unanimous vote in the Town of Boston, and with an abatement of only two or three in the whole County. In short there was not a Senator half so popular for half so long a Time. But a Posse petitioned for The Union Bank. Tufts was a Man of sense and voted against it. At the next election all the engines of speculators were set to work in all the Towns in the County, and the pious, virtuous, learned, ingenious, upright and incorruptible Tufts was turned out, and has never been in since. The same year my Brother Peter Boylston Adams Esqr. was chosen Representative for the Town of Quincy, it being the first year after it was separated from Braintree and erected into a Town by itself. He also was a Man of Sense, Spirit and Honour. Upon the Question of the Union Bank he saw its corrupt Tendency and gave his Nay against it. The Gallery was full of Speculators, and upon his Nay being pro- nounced The Cry in the Gallery, loud enough to be heard by Many, was "God damn the Nays, who would have expected a Nay from that Quarter." All their Engines were set to work in all the Taverns and Dram Shops of our Town of Quincy, and at the next elec- tion My Brother was turned out and has never been in since. Since that we have been constantly represented by an Irishman, a Liverpool Man or a Boston Man. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 277 The Cry against Peter at our Dram Shops was, he voted against the new Bank and is a Dupe of his Brother the Vice President. Any Cry will do when reinforced by Rum Whiskey or Toddy or Porter enough, at Ale- houses Taverns dram shops or Nanny Houses in Eng- land or America. What shall we say ? The most unblemished Charac- ters in this Country, have been and are as deep in this Mire, of Banks, Stocks and Speculation of all sorts, as the most profligate and abandoned. Phillips has erected a magnificent Block of Brick Buildings in one of the most conspicuous spots in the Town and called it Ham- ilton Place, in Honour of his System of Funds and Banks by which his Phillips's Father and himself have made immense Fortunes. And where can you find purer Characters than the Phillips's? Hancock and Gill, Jarvis Austin and all the Democrats were engaged the Union Bank. Again what shall we say? who shall throw the first stone ? I am disgusted with this nauseous subject. Adieu. Adieu. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy January 18. 1811. Dear Sir,-As I am never weary of writing to you, because I write always without thinking, I am not sorry to be obliged to begin another Letter and another sheet. J. Q. A. in a Letter to his Brother T. B. A. dated St. Petersbourg 27 October 1810 has these words, viz: " I wish you to procure and send to me a specimen of every one of the Coins of the Mint of the United States, of Gold-Silver-and Copper, viz : an Eagle, Half Eagle, Quarter Eagle. Dollar, half dollar, quarter 19 278 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. dollar, Ten Cent and five Cent piece-Cent and half Cent, as new as you can procure, or at least perfect in execution and undefaced. I want them for a Collec- tion. Perhaps by the Friendship of Dr. Rush you can procure them new from The Mint. And to save the trouble of forwarding them to you, perhaps he will be kind enough to send them to me by some spring vessel from Philadelphia. You will transmit to him the amount of their value, and charge it in account to me." Now, my good Friend, will you be so good as to let me know whether you will undertake this kind office. Whether you send them from Philadelphia directly to Petersburg which will probably be the best way, or whether you send them to me or my son here at Quincy I will be answerable that the Money shall be remitted to you immediately by myself or by Thomas Boylston Adams. Since I have been obliged to begin a new sheet for this Little Piece of Business, I may say a few words in answer to your last Concerning the Resurrection of Letters. You allow that "an attention to the dead Languages has revived in Europe," but alledge that " Napoleon is at the head of the Junto confederated to restore them." I will not deny him the Glory that is due to him. It is true that no Man, Prince or subject, has distinguished himself more by the Patronage of Science, Litterature and the fine Arts than Napoleon. This and Toleration, are the brightest Jewells in his Crown. I cannot how- ever do so much honour to him as to ascribe this sec- ond Resurrection of Learning to him, it is rather due to the American Revolution. That great event turned the Thoughts and studies of Men of Learning to the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 279 ancient Greeks, their Language, their Antiquities, their Forms of Government. Anacharsis Gillies, Mitford, La Harpe, and a thousand other works in France, England, Holland, Germany and Italy were produced by the Amer- ican Revolution before Bonaparte made any Figure. The Darkness and Ignorance of the fourteenth and fifteenth Centuries were dispelled, and a new Glory spread over Mankind by the discovery of the Classics and the Corpus Juris at Constantinople and Amalphi: how then can you imagine that the same Darkness and Ignorance can be brought back by the very studies which scattered them : i. e. by a new Resurrection of the same Learning. We need not fear that Latin and Greek will ever be too much studied. Not one in ten thousand of those who study them in schools and Colledges ever make any great Proficiency in them. In general Scollars are enabled to understand their own Languages the better for the smattering they acquire in the Classicks, and to examine a Passage occasionally in Latin, &c. But you must be weary by this time of common Place thoughts of your Friend Dr. Rush. John Adams. Quincy February 13. 1811. Dear Sir,-In your Favour of the 4th. according to my Judgment you have given up the whole Contro- versy. You have no objection you say to teaching the youth in our schools to read the dead Languages. By reading them, no doubt you meant that they should so read them as to understand them, and they can be read to be understood in no way so well as by writing and 280 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. speaking them. I therefore regret very much the dis- continuance, in the Universities of Europe and America, of the Practice and Fashion of talking in Latin. I regret too the exchange of French for Latin as the Language of Courts, Camps, Travellers, Merchants, Science and Letters. If Franklins division of the Labour of ac- quiring a Language into ten Parts be correct, I think the five for reading, the two for speaking and the three for writing should all be employed, and the whole Ten will be little enough to acquire a Language as it should be mastered. The late wonderful increase of knowl- edge in all useful Arts and Sciences, will facilitate the acquisition of Languages as much as other Things. The profound Investigations of the Principles of all Languages, and universal Grammar, and the great va- riety of excellent Translations into English, French, Italian, German, &c. will make the Progress more easy and delightful than ever it has been. I most cordially congratulate you and my Friend Mr. Rush, on his unsolicited and unexpected appointment to the very respectable and very important office of Attorney General of the State of Pensilvania. Gentle- men of his Talents, Accomplishments, Wisdom and Moderation, I fear are very rare : but among those who might be found, it appears to me that neither the People, nor their Government have been very fortu- nate in their Elections or Selections. Parties have too much Influence and are too monopolizing and exclusive in their dispositions. I rejoice in the appearance on the stage of another Benjamin Rush. May he live as long as his Grand- father has lived or shall live and serve his Species and his Country as meritoriously. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 281 The Rage for Banks is a Fever a Mania. I wish you would invent a Tranquillizer to tame it. Every Bank in America is an enormous Tax upon the People for the Profit of Individuals. All the salaries of all the officers of all our Government, State and.National, do not cost the People so much Money as these Banks. But I despair of ever seeing Common Sense pre- vail in Money Matters in America. No People ever had so much Experience of the Injustice, Impolicy and Inhumanity of Paper Money: but Experience and Demonstration is lost upon us. Our Banks are the Madness of the Many for the Profit of a Few. If the Termination of the National Bank is to be a Precedent for the demolition of all the rest I should rejoice in its end : but if it is to be a signal for augmenting the number of State Banks it will cure no distemper, pre- vent no evil. Our Banks are all founded upon a funda- mental Principle of Iniquity. It requires, however, great Prudence, Moderation and Delicacy to extricate us from these Briars without scratching the Skin and lacerating the Flesh. I will write to my Neighbour Mr. Quincy in Con- gress and ask the favour of him to take The Coins with him to Boston when he returns ; unless you should receive a different advice from me or my son Thomas before Mr. Quincy arrives at Philadelphia. Mr. Quincy is my Neighbour and Friend, though we are not pre- cisely in the same system of Politicks, at present. I wish to be informed of the amount of the Coins, that we may remit it to you. I am my dear Sir, as ever yours Dr. Rush. John Adams. 282 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy April 2. 1811. My dear Friend,-I thank you for the Trouble you have kindly taken in procuring the Samples of Coins for my Son J. Q. A. which Mr. Quincy was so good as to deliver with his own hand: and am glad to learn from your Letter that Mr. Erving in behalf of my Son T. B. A. has paid you the amount of them. I thank you for your Letter of the 4th. of March and your Congratulations on the Appointment of my Son to a seat on the Bench ; a situation more agreable to me, as it places him out Politicks as well as Nego- tiation, than any other to which he could be appointed. But sub Rosa I have doubts whether he will like it so well: because I apprehend he will feel as his Father felt on his Return from Europe. I would not have accepted the office of a Judge for this reason and no other, that I apprehended myself after an inattention to the science and practice of Law for fourteen years, not sufficiently familiar with its Principles, Precepts and Forms to qualify me for a station so momentous to the dearest Interests of my Fellow Citizens. Above all I thank you for The Volume of your Lect- ures; to me a very precious Present. Your writings are always as entertaining as The Lady of The Lake and much more instructive. They are a vast Magazine of Ideas novel and original calculated to excite and as- sist every enquiring Mind in the pursuit of Branches of Knowledge the most useful to Mankind and most essential to their Happiness. The Legislature of Massachusetts in their last ses- sion, created a Corporation for the purpose of estab- lishing a Public Hospital and were pleased without my OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 283 Knowledge to appoint me a most useless and unworthy Member of it. I know of but service I can possibly render to this honourable Institution and that is by presenting them with your learned and experienced Lecture up this humane and noble subject. And this will be a very minute service, because I have no doubt my excellent and honourable Colleagues will be possessed of the Book, long before we meet. I hope your Bookseller will transmit a number of these Vol- umes to Boston for sale. I am not prone to Flattery: and if I were you would neither love me the better nor esteem me the more for indulging the disposition. It is no more than Justice to say that your Reputation as a Physician is justly higher and more extensive than that of any one who has ever lived in America: and as a Lecturer you cer- tainly stand unrivalled. If my son could be thought the second Sublimi feriam Sidera Vertice. I want to write a Line to your Attorney General who is worthy of his Father. Health and Long Life, not so much for your enjoyment as for the general good of Mankind and for no Individual out of your own Family more than John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy June 21. 1811. As Charite commens par soi meme, or as we more elegantly express it, as Charity begins at home, I shall first resent the domestic part of your dramatic Dialogue of the 13th. The prosperous and promising Circumstances of every Branch of your Family gives me unfeigned Pleas- 284 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ure. The only exception is to be deplored, but not in despair. Richard is my Friend by a sort of Inheri- tance. He cannot fail to do well if he is careful to pre- serve his health, an article as much in danger at the Bar as in sick Chambers and midnight visits. Now for my turn. My Companion in Prosperity and Adversity has the same delicate health, and similar frequent ill turns as when you were more nearly ac- quainted with her: but the same indefatigable exer- tions for her Family, and all her Friends as well as her Children and Grand Children, still continue, and her Friendship for you and yours is not diminished. My son Thomas Boylston, has much ill health, and has lately met an unfortunate accident which has con- fined him for several weeks, by a Fall of his Horse. His wound is now in a good way and he has been twice out to ride, once to Boston and once to Weymouth. He has three pretty Children, two daughters and a son: and peradventure a fourth by this time whose Birth we expect to hear every Moment. Our Legislature have given him a seat in Counsel, where I hope he will give faithful advice to The Governor according to the oath which he has taken. Mrs. Smith is near The Chenango in a town called Lebanon in the State of New York. We are in great Anxiety for her as she is threatened with a Cancer in her Breast. We expect her here in a few Weeks. Her oldest son William is with his uncle in St. Peters- bourg: her second son John is at Hamilton about four Miles from his Father and Mother in the Practice of Law, and they have made him a Postmaster and a Master in Chancery. Her Daughter Caroline is with her Parents, and is a 285 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. charming Girl. Charles's Widow and two Daughters are with me. The Daughters are grown up, and are good Girls : one has remarkable Abilities. The other not deficient. I expect John Quincy, with some little scepticism however, in all October or November. I am well. My Appetite is as good as ever. I sleep well o Nights. No Burdens, whether Grashoppers or Mammoths of Body or Mind affect me. I still enjoy a Chair in this Study: but avoid close Thinking from Principle. My natural vision is not bad, but I use Glasses for ease to my eyes, which you have known to be weak and subject to Inflammations for almost forty years. My Hearing, for any Thing that I perceive or my Friends have remarked to me is as good as ever. So much for the bright side. On the other I have a " Quiveration." What in the Name of the Medical Dictionary, you will say, is a "Quiveration?" A wild Irish Boy, who lives with my son T. B., let a Horse run away with a Chaise. One of the Family ran out and cryed out Nat! why did you not scream out and call for help ? Sir! Sir ! said Nat, I was seized with such a Quiveration that I could not speak. Nat's Quiveration is the best word I know to express my Palsy. It does not as yet much incommode me in writing, though my hands are chiefly affected. Another Circumstance on the dark side is my organs of speech are gone. It would divert you to witness a Conversation between my ancient Friend and Colleague Robert T. Paine and me. He is above eighty. I cannot speak and he can- not hear. Yet we converse. Thus I have given a par- ticular answer to every one of your Questions. And now how shall I turn my Thoughts from this 286 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. good humoured Small Talk to the angry turbulent stormy Science of Politicks. But previously I am in no fear of forgetting or being forgotten by my old Friend Rush. I am quite at my ease about the Battle. Regretting the honest Fellows however who were killed and wounded, it is a matter of indifference to me which ship fired first. I feel as I did after the Battle of Lexington. A great solicitude appeared in Congress to ascertain by oaths affidavits and Depositions, which fired first. I was thought to aim at Independence, because I de- clared in Congress that I did not care a Farthing about this Question. Since it was become apparent that a War was inevitable, it was of no moment which com- menced Hostilities, for Hostilities alone could decide the Controversy between the two Countries. Yet cer- tainly they were better Politicians than I because they studied and laboured to have appearances on their side. I am sorry to find from your Letter that The Boston Tories who gave the Tone to those of all the Conti- nent from 1761 to 1783, continue to give it to those of Philadelphia in 1811. At the same time forget not, that the Whigs of Boston gave the Tone to the Whigs of the Continent. Let not the importance of Boston to this Union be forgotten. You ought to read Gerrys speech. It is in the gen- uine Whiggish style of 1765 and 1775. He is the same enlightened, indefatigable and persevering Patriot. "Louis 14, if not the greatest King, was the best Actor of Majesty that ever wore a Crown" said Bolin- broke. Our Citizens in our great commercial Cities, if they are not the greatest Politicians that ever lived, are OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 287 great Masters of the Theatrical Exhibitions of Politicks. Were there ever more striking Coups de Theatre than Mock Funerals ? Or our Celebrations of The Rock on which my great, great, great, great, [and I know not how many more greats] Grandfather John Alden at twenty years of age first leaped at Plymouth in 1620. This Institution however is dying away be- cause it was found to excite too much Calvinism and Puritanism: and perhaps too high a spirit of Liberty. Washington understood this Art very well, and we may say of him, if he was not the greatest President he was the best Actor of Presidency we have ever had. His address to The States when he left the Army: His solemn Leave taken of Congress when he resigned his Commission : his Farewell Address to the People when he resigned his Presidency. These were all in a strain of Shakespearean and Garrickal excellence in Dra- matic Exhibitions. We Whiggs attempted somewhat of the kind. The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a Theatrical Show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that: i. e. all the Glory of it. The Exception from Pardon of Hancock and Adams, had a like effect. This however was not their Con- trivance nor any Device of our Party. It was an Inci- dent in the Play that was not prepared by the author or actors. It was considered by the People and justly as decisive Proof of Sin, in the sense of their Enemy, and of saintship in their own sense. We never instituted Mock Funerals for Warren, Montgomery, Mercer, Wooster, or Hancock or Frank- lin or Sam Adams or Patrick Henry or R. H. Lee, or James Otis or John Dickinson. 288 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. This is a more modern Discovery and Improvement of the great Art of Aristocratical Trick, Intrigue, Ma- noeuvre or what you please to call it. The Usury of Roman Senators must be inforced by military force, or Roman Catholick Jesuitism. But all these Arts are not equal to that of making immense fortunes however scandalous, per saltum, in a twinkling of an eye, by a financiering operation, which substitutes a Paper Money, whose immense deprecia- tions go into the Pocketts of a few Individuals in Lieu of a Paper Money whose depreciations are in favour of the whole People. A curse on Paper Money of all kinds ! But enough ! Enough ! of this ill Nature. It restores all my good Nature to bid you adieu as your old Friend. I wish you would come and see me in Reality, in my Room, Chamber Study, Office or whatever you please to call it. Why not ? with Mrs. Rush or the young Ladies, or both, or all ? John Adams. Dr. Rush. My venerable Friend,-Be pleased to accept my cordial congratulations on the felicity of your Family in the arrival of your Son and Daughter from Europe. The Doctor will be the staff of your age and you will be the Guide of his youth. The Daughter and her infants will be the delight of her Mother as well as her Father. For myself, clothed as I am in sable, I may without repining acknowledge the seventy sixth year of my age to have been the most afflictive of my life. Quincy November 2d. 1811. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 289 In January 1811 died very suddenly, leaving a dis- tressed and helpless Family of eight children, Mrs. Norton, a Niece of my Wife, a Daughter of my Brother and sister Cranch who was always as dear to us as a child. In April a Horse took fright in a Brook, reared and fell against a Stone Bridge, and bruised and wounded my son T. B. A. in his Thigh, in such a manner as to lay him up for several Months under the Care of his Surgeons in great danger of being a Cripple for Life. In June my sister Cranch, in her seventieth year oppressed with Grief for the loss of her Daughter and with anxiety, Care and exertion for her orphan Chil- dren fell sick of a Fever and lingered under the Con- sequences of it for four Months. Mr. Cranch my Guide Philosopher and Friend for sixty years, at the age of eighty five, borne down by the Loss of his Daughter and sickness of his wife fell at last very suddenly on the 16 Oct. and his wife expired the next day, Both were buried together in my Tomb. In June my Daughter in Law, Charles's Widow who with her two Daughters lives with me, was taken with a vomiting of blood, which has confined her under the constant Care of Physicians for three or four months and reduced her to extream weakness. She is now however somewhat better. My Daughter Smith's case you know, a source of great anxiety to us for more than a year was at last happily terminated by your advice as we hope, but at a time when so many calamities concurred as to make the excision of a Ladys Breast appear but a small affliction. Two Months since going out in the dark in my Garden 290 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. to look for the Comet I stumbled over a Knot in a Stake and tore my Leg near the shin in such a manner that the surgeon with his Baths, Cataplasms, Plaisters and Bandages has been daily hovering about it and poor I, deprived of my Horse and my walks have been bolstered up with my Leg horrizontal on a Sopha. Mr. Smith a near Relation and most intimate Friend of ours in Boston had a son of most promising Hopes educated at the University and the Bar an officer in a Cadet Corps of Militia, in the unprecedent heat of the 4th. of July got a Fever that left him in a Con- sumption of which he died. The News of the Death of Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Buchannan her son in Law, and the dangerous sickness of her Daughters and the dangerous sickness in the Family of Judge Cranch at Washington arrived in the midst of all our other distresses. It is scarcely decent after all this to mention the dis- appointment of our hopes of the return of our Children from Russia. Such my Friend is the Lott of humanity. But the Case of our Calamities has rarely been equaled since the days of Job. Yours however in the time of the yellow Fever were more distressing. Several of our tenderest Connections and most es- sential Friends at and near fourscore remain to keep up a constant apprehension in our Minds of their and our approaching departure. The Reflections dictated by Philosophy and Religion upon these events need not be suggested to you, to whom they are quite as familiar as to your Friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 291 Quincy January 15. 1812. Dr. Sir,-You have forgotten old Dr. Shippen, Dr. Franklin, and many others : I have known many In- stances. Not to mention General Oglethorp or Mrs. Cope or many others. I knew a Miss Sarah Mills mar- ried first to Mr. Neal and afterwards to Mr. Thayer. She pretended to have been one of my Fathers boyish Flames, and upon the strength of this great merit she made me a visit once a year riding down six or seven miles upon a Pillion behind a Boy. She loved wine, with moderation, and we gave her her fill. She wanted Money to help her thro' the year and we always gave her a little. She staid as long as she pleased, and had the best Beds and Tables our house afforded. Her Health of body and mind was as perfect as ever it had been. She was always profuse in her expressions of gratitude to her human Benefactors, not forgetting her divine. Her concluding Sentence always was " God is wonderful to me !" She visited us annually till she was One hundred and two. I may adopt her pious Motto. Conclude not from this that I flatter my self with the hope of long life. No such thing. My constitution is a Mass bubble : an hollow licecickle. A blast from the o South West or North East may break or dissolve it in an hour. A slight Irregularity or one intemperate din- ner might finish the Catastrophy of the Play. A French Bishop said to me speaking of Franklin when he was younger than I am " Il ne faudra, que tres peu de chose, a son age, pour abbatre un colosse." Vanity is one of your "diseases of the Mind." You and all the world know to what a scandalous degree I have been infected with it all the days of my life. Jones 292 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. and Barry were leprous with it when the first said " My hand first hoisted the American Flag and the last was not less distempered with it when he said " The British Naval Flag first struck to me." Both these boasts were vain and false. Both were true only in the mouth of John Manly ; whose Prizes were of more importance to this Country than all that Jones or Barry both ever performed. I respect your Science and Humanity as a Veterina- rian : but is there not a little " disease of the mind" in your and Howards and Burkes enthusiasm for old Horses. The weakness is amiable : but I doubt the real rational humanity of it. The old Farmers maxim is founded in more judicious experience " If you would have an old Man or an old horse good for any thing you must keep him always going, always in use." This is conformable to my experience of Man and Horse. Burkes affection was not for the horse but for his son, whom from a distemper of the mind he adored, and to whom he had hoped to transmit that Peerage which was the object of his invariable Aim and pursuit: as really as a Bishoprick in England was that of Dr. Swift. Would not the expence of keeping old useless Horses be more humanely employed in relieving Prisoners, Orphans and Widows ? The old white Charger is a different story. I never heard of but one Charger in America : nor of more than one banquetting room. Were not both these Titles given from some little lurking disease of the Mind? Your Book has made it very clear and very certain that we all labour under diseases of the Mind. When I lived in Boston, an ingenious French Peruquier who OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 293 made and dressed my Barristers Wiggs, and shaved my face, once told me a story of an English Nobleman, who came to his shop in London where he had dressed heads and shaved faces some years before he came over and talked and behaved very extravagantly. But said the Barber " His Lordship was a leetle crack : in- deed all de Mylors in England are crack." You have proved that we are all crack, insomuch that I am almost afraid to read it all, least I should see my own Character in the mirror and see more symp- toms of mental Malady. The Book is in so much request among my five inquisitive Females, that I could not keep it, and then my Neighbour Dr. Vinton one of your ardent admirers, must have it, and he has let others read it, and I cannot get it. But I have read enough to make me tremble. Other Things however more seriously alarm me. My son in Law is chosen to Congress, and by a vast majority against a formidable Competitor. The Con- sequence of this I know not. You shall divine from the inclosed Letter to me, which upon your Friendship you must return to me by the next Post or two. His elec- tion is a demonstration of the Confidence and affection of two large Counties containing near 50,000 souls in which he has lived in Poverty and Obscurity for many years. He must now meet on the same Floor the most malicious and insidious Tool in Tim. Pickering, of the most jealous envious and malicious enemy he ever had, Alexander Hamilton: both of whom together accom- plished his Ruin. I mourn for our Friend Clymer. With him I admit the outrages of both France and England: but I dread the Power of neither. I dread nothing but the disease 20 294 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. of the Mind in my own dear beloved Nation. But that must and will be cured. So wishes, so prays, so hopes and so undoubtingly believes the same semper idem John Adams. I am glad Waterhouse has a son with you. The Father commands one of the most elegant and mas- terly pens in America. He is a Jewell of a Man and has been most cruelly used because he is a Friend of the national Government and because he writes better books than any of his Profession here. Dr. Rush. Quincy January 27. 1812 Friend,-I agree with you that The Ocean ought to be and must be The Theatre of the War. Our Gov- ernment will come by degrees to the right system. I have toasted the Wooden Walls, the Floating Castles, the floating Batteries and the floating Citidels of The United States for six and thirty years: and I now rejoice to find that many Persons now begin to drink my Toasts with Huzzas. I am quite of The Controulers Mind, that there is no doubt of Mr. Madisons Re-election. Who can stand in Competition ? Gen. Pinkney, Gen. Armstrong, Vice President Clinton ? Oh No. Respectable worthy Men, but far inferiour in Talents, Industry and espe- cially Popularity. No Man in the Union can compete with The Locum Tenens at present. I am really grieved for you, under the Loss of your OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 295 Son. But I am deeply impressed with an Idea that your Loss will be his and his Country's Gain. Mr. Gerry's speech is too long, because it tells too many solemn Truths. I know of no other Man in the United States whose nerves would have borne him out in telling so many. I should not have dared: and yet I do not think myself a very timorous Politician. Yet it was necessary. Gerry is a Wedge prepared by Provi- dence to split a lignum vitae knot here, as hard as Luther had to split in Germany. Let me introduce to you, Mr. Richard Cranch Norton an amiable and ingenious young Gentleman of educa- tion and to beg a Line of Introduction to The Con- trouler. I am forever yours Dr. Rush. John Adams. turn over P.S.-My Rib says I have not been particular enough. Mr. Norton is a Grandson of my Brother and her Brother and Sister Cranch, a Nephew of Chief Justice Cranch of the Columbian District under whom he is studying Law. You I think and the Controuller too must I think be pleased with his Modesty, Civility and Ingenuity. He was the first Man in America who dis- covered the Commet last May. He is the Son of a Learned Divine in Weymouth. Quincy Feb. 26. 1812. Dear Sir,-I shall expect your long Letter: but I ought not to wish it with Impatience : for you have such demands upon you for your Time : that I wonder 296 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. how you can spare any to write answers to my Imper- tinences. The Astonishment of your Family at my Vivacity is very just. Rochefaucault says when a Mans Vivacity increases with years it becomes Frenzy at last. Nothing is indeed more ridiculous than an old Man more than three quarters of a hundred, rat- tling like a Boy of fifteen at School or at Colledge. I am ashamed of it, yet ten to one I shall fall into it again, before I finish this Letter: for I feel at least forty years younger when I am writing to you. Martinus Scriblerus would pronounce my Imagery to be drawn from a lower deep than the lowest deep of the Bathos. There is no Delicacy in it. Swift whose wild Imagina- tion could create Brobdignagians and Lilliputians and the thousand wonders of his Travels and Fables calcu- lates every Figure with mathematical exactness and not an Image or a Metaphor is admitted that is not neat, exact and compleat. Though every word in his Prose and Verse, comes as natural and flows as easy as water down an uniform inclined plain, yet I cannot conceive it possibly could be accomplished without the most profound patience, and obstinate determined study. I dare say he copied over all he wrote as often as Demosthenes copied Thucidides. I would not under- take to write one Page of Swift's Poetry or Prose under half a year. And yet Dr. Blair has convicted him of breaking Priscians head in a Number of In- stances. I thank you sir and your Lady for your kind Civilities to my modest, amiable and ingenious young Nephew Mr. Richard Cranch Norton. He has grate- fully acknowledged his obligations to your Family in his Letters to his own here. The Renovation of an ancient Correspondence has OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 297 been an agreeable Circumstance. It cannot last long for one Party must very soon yield to Nature her dues. But I am surprized to find that a Winter Journey on Horseback of Ninety Miles is performed to visit a Plan- tation ! I would not undertake it for the Fee Simple of the United States with unlimited Dominion over their Inhabitants with their own Consent. I am afraid my Friend Jefferson has become worldly minded. For myself I care nothing about this world, except as it is a Part of a system of which the remotest fixed star in the Gallaxy or in Herschells Nebulae and every Satilite about it is as essential as ours. Yet I am as anxious for my Children, Grand Children, Country, Europe at times as Fisher Ames. Such incongruous Creatures we are. And such we must be till we take our Lessons from the great Teacher to whom I am desirous of going to school as soon as eternal Wisdom shall think fit. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy July 3. 1812. Dear Sir,-Mrs. Rush may be assured that I have no doubt of her Friendship for me. The Familiarities and Jocularities in question have been too often expe- rienced by me for fifty years, for me to be ignorant of the spirit of them. I must confess that I have received much good advice and many wholesome Admonitions and Remonstrances in this way: as I believe you have too. And we must both of us confess that we have often wanted them. What are we to think of History ? What depend- 298 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ence can we have on Tradition? It lay as a confused recollection in my head, that the little Flirt between Jefferson and me [the only one that ever happened during our Lives] was occasioned by a Motion for Con- gress to sit on Sunday. If your Memory and mine differ in so recent a transaction, what are we to think of the Traditions of the Roman Church? What of the Traditions of the North American Indians? The latter I believe are the least fraudulent. You also have misremembered another Circum- stance. It was not Mr. Grenville, but The Earl of Hilsborough, who held the Dialogue with Mr. Laurens. Hilsborough said "it was not the Revenue they ex- pected to obtain from America, but you spread too much Canvas upon the Ocean. Do you think we will let you go on with your Navigation and your Forty thousand Seamen ?" But even in this last sentence there is a variation between your Memory and mine. I think his Lordship said, " Do you think we will suffer those New Englandmen to go on with their Navigation and their forty thousand Seamen ?" Meaning to ac- comodate himself to Mr. Laurens's local views, and partial prejudices as a Southern Man and a South Carolinian, by insinuating that the Controversy was not with his Country, but with New England: and thereby contribute something to prevent or break the Union of The Colonies. To correct the Sentiments and rectify the Conduct of a Nation, it is necessary to employ a propriety and precision of intelligible Language. Why then my Friend, do you speak of a Democratic Ticket? Mr. Madison nor Mr. Jefferson ever pretended to be Advo- cates for a Democratical Government. The great Body OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 299 of the People who have supported them have taken the Name of Republicans, and all the most sound, solid and intelligent part of them would be allarmed at the prospect of a Democratical Government and offended at being called Democrats. There is, and there will be no Change in the Minds, whatever there may be in the Conduct of those who wish for Commerce and Allyance with Great Britain and a War with France. They will not succeed in dis- lodging Mr. Madison: but if they should who will they bring in ? Who can settle with G. Britain ? Could Mr. Jay? Could Mr. Clinton? Could General Pink- ney? Could Mr. King? Could Mr. Randolph? Mr. Quincy? or Mr. Lloyd ? Could Mr. Giles, Mr. Monroe or Mr. S. Smith? I trow not. Never were three words better coined or applied, than your " bebanked, bewhiskied, and bedollared" Nation. The Profits of our Banks to the advantage of the few, at the loss of the many, are such an enormous fraud and oppression as no other Nation ever invented or endured. Who can compute the amount of the sums taken out of the Pocketts of the Simple and hoarded in the Purses of the cunningr in the course of every year. Yet where is the Remedy? The Repub- licans are as deep in this absurdity and this Guilt as the Federalists. If Rumour speaks the Truth Boston has and will emulate Philadelphia in her Proportion of Bankrupt- cies : and West India and New England Rum is as plenty and as precious as Whiskey. I have read nothing from Congress with so much pleasure or Profit as the motion to raise annually a 3oo OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Revenue of six millions of dollars, on four and twenty Millions of Gallons of Whiskey. Adieu. John Adams. Dr. Rush. I long for Richards oration. My dear Friend,-I beg you would not consider yourself obliged to answer my Letters. Your Time is precious, mine of no value. I thank you for the contrast. Striking it is. General Mifflin behaved nobly. But Muhlenbourgs, Coxes &c. &c. how did they? In Strong and Goodhue you see the Whiggism or rather the Republicanism of Strait Hair: as well as in Pickering. Liberty sometimes wears Strait Hair: but strait hair is not the infallible Costume of Liberty. A hint for your History. Lincoln and Strong were fellow students in Major Hawleys office at Northamp- ton in 1773, 4, 5. Lincoln was the brightest Genius, the most studious and the most learned, and the most enterprizing. He distinguished himself by his Writings as early as 1774 or 1775. But there has been a Rivalry between them to this hour. How great an effect has this " Rivalite" produced! And what Historian but you will ever know any Thing about it ? There is an alliance between our Essex Junto and our New England Theologians, Unitarians and Atha- nasians, Hopkintonians and Freewillers and all; Bos, Fur, Sus atque Sacerdos : with a few bright exceptions. Quincy July 10. 1812. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 301 If a Gallatins Rebellion or a Fries's Rebellion should be excited by this Coalition [I will not call it strange] Madison will have nothing to do but imitate my ex- ample [proud and impudent as it is in me to say itl he need not put the Nation to the expense nor make the ostentatious Parade of Washington to suppress it. My opinion however is clear there will be no Commotion at all. The object of all this spiritual and temporal Bluster is to get Madison out. But who to get in ? Jay? Clinton? Pinkney? highly as I esteem the first and ignorant as I am of any objection to the other two I own I prefer Madison to all three at the present Moment. John Randolph's Conscience recollects the Insolence of himself and Party on their Tryumph. But I am the less anxious on this point because I know that bring in who they will, he cannot essentially or materially depart from Madisons present system. Madison and Madisonians however should consider that whoever succeeds him will cherrish a Naval Defense. And if he is rejected, it will be because he has not sufficiently advocated, as I was turned out because I too explicitly recommended, it. There are several Members of the House who have attracted my attention, and convinced me that our Country abounds with Intelligence and Talent. A Cal- houn, a Lounds, a Cheves, a Clay, a Porter. These appear to me to be sensible Men and honest. Grundy and Harper too. John Randolph appears to be so tormented by his Conscience in recollecting his own Conduct in the 18th. Century that he is nearly fit for your Chair. I know not whether you have read the Address to the people of the State by our H. of Reps, or that of the 302 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Minority in the H. of Rep. in Congress to the People of the Union. I wish my eyes would suffer me to write Commentaries on these two studied Composi- tions. They would however be of no use to you. Your own sense will perceive them all. I am really grieved : I am ashamed : I am confounded to read such Sophistry, such Insincerity, such want of Candor or want of Information in such Bodies of American Citi- zens. If Jugurtha should see this to be the general Character of American Citizens what would he say ? We know what he said on taking Leave of Rome, " Urbem venalem, mature perituram, si modo emptorem invenerit." Both Parties in the United States have ex- hibited strong symptoms, made bold and daring ad- vances beyond the Boundaries of Morality into the Regions of Ambition, Selfishness and Rapacity. And who or what shall stop them in their Career ? The Law- givers of Antiquity, Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, Zeleucus legislated for single Cities. But who can Legislate for 18, 20 or 30 States, each of which is greater than all Greece or Rome at those times. No human Mind I believe, certainly none that has yet appeared in America is equal to it. Neither Party will bear a third Power as an Umpire. It is tolerated only as a Tool. Aristocratia and Demo- cratiawill still pull caps : will tear each others eyes and scratch each others visages, I will not be so gross as to say suck each others blood, till some Alexander, Caesar, Zingis, Mahomet, Cromwell, Napoleon, Hamilton or Burr with an Army of Conscriptions shall make Peace : or rather make a Solitude and call it Peace. Solitudi- nem faciant Pacem appellant. Great long bloody and terrible will be the Conflict before this is all effected. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 303 You and I shall not see it. But I could snivel like Ames for my Children and Grand Children. But what are my Posterity more than others ? If every one who sprung from my Loins was split and broiled like a Maccarel what is that to the Fate of Mankind, or to the future, or the present Millions of America? The Dangers of American Liberty, of French Liberty, of Dutch Liberty, of English Liberty, of Genevan Liberty and of Swiss Liberty, were glaring enough in my Bou- doir, long before Fisher Ames's babyish sobs were heard in the World. There is a Comet in our political system. In its prog- ress it seems to be now at New York. A. Burr has advertised a Barristers Office. How different and yet how similar is this Being to Hamilton, Ames, H. G. Otis. If you were Cicero or I Atticus or vice versa these characters might be develloped. But Corre- spondence between the most confidential Friends can- not be so free here, and now, as it was there and then. You know Facts in Burrs history that you would not communicate to me. I know Facts that I have never communicated to you. If you dare, I will dare to tell the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. Vanity and Egotism is and must be my perpetual Theme. Petere Fontes : Petito Fontes : Pete Fontes : Petite Fontes, has been my Precept, my Maxim, my polar star through Life. I have uniformly sought Prin- ciples. But where are Principles ? and what are Prin- ciples ? Take any Principle of Religion, Morals, Policy, Philosophy or common sense, and compare it with the Life of Hutchinson, Dickinson, Washington, Jeffer- son, Madison, Burr, Hamilton, Ames, Otis, Clinton, McKean : I will enumerate no more : and then say, 304 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. what Principle has governed ? Every one of these will say, as I do, and as you will do, " I have acted on Principle." There is one Being, who understands the Principles of the Universe, and never deviates from them, "I am the Lord, I change not" and to him I appeal. I will add no more. Except Mr. Calhoun speaks as I think. I will not charge Jefferson or Madison with Cowardice. I believe it of neither. I will not call it weakness, for they are strong Men. But I say this Country ought to have been better prepared for War, especially by sea. This egregious defect was want of Judgment and Foresight at least. In mercy to you and to myself, let me finish by sub- scribing- John Adams. Dr. Rush. P.S.-Do you recollect the outrageous Insolence of Tom Paine, Callender, Duane, and John Randolph after their Tryumph in 1800, and what was that Tryumph? After Millions of Lies, and all their Wit, Genius and Talents, aided by every Frenchman on the Continent, Wade Hampton and old Sumpter cheated South Caro- lina out of the real Choice of her People: and after seven and thirty Tryals in the House between Jefferson and Burr, the former came in by one vote, and I know how that vote was obtained, because I obtained it. This History has not yet been disclosed: but it shall not perish. If such was the Tryumph of the Democracy, by one vote in 1800, and such its Insolence and Impudence, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 305 what would be the Tryumph of Aristocracy in 1813, if it should effect a Change of Administration in the Midst of War ? Our Executive is made a mere Testa di Legno. A mere head of wood. A mere Football, kicked and tossed by Frenchmen, Englishmen or rather Scotchmen, and ignorant michievous Boys. And yet you and Jefferson think our Executive too strong. Quincy September 3. 1812. My dear Friend,-How shall I, how can I, express the gratefull Feelings of my heart for your Friendship and Benevolence to me, communicated in your kind letter of the twentieth of August ? I assure you I had some scruples of Conscience, and wanted the Aid of a Casuist, to instruct me, whether I ought to accept it. If you had allowed me to pay the freight Insurance and Duties &c. this would have re- moved some of the embarrassment. If I could con- vert it into a statue or Picture of Dr. Rush, this would afford me and my Family more Pleasure, more admo- nition and more Information than all the statues Pictures and Mausoleums in the world : more than all the wine of Samos, Malaga, Madeira or Constantia, or Tockai. But what need have I of pictures of Dr. Rush. I have his works : which in my opinion are of far greater value than all the Writings of Franklin, let the roundabout, rambling, circumlocutory, everlasting Edinborough Re- viewers say what they will. After all, knowing and Feeling that the Gift pro- ceeded from pure unadulterated Friendship, I have on this third day of September 1812, the twenty ninth 306 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Anniversary of the definitive Treaty of Peace of 1783, sent to Boston for the Cask. And as long as we Antediluvians can drink we will toast Dr. Rush his Family and Friends, the 3d. of Sept. 1783 and the third of Septr. 1812. Pray send me the first News you have of your son Benjamin, and his Travels in the Countrys of Homer and Paul. I am, dear sir your obliged Friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Septi. 18. 1812. My dear Friend,-In the good old English Phrase, I give you ten thousand Thanks for the Muscat Wine of Samos, which is now in my Cellar, in good order and of good Quality. You did not forsee one effect of it. It will increase my love of Greek and Latin more than my Patriotism. Oh! How I heard a Circle of Ladies of the first quality, old and middle aged, and young, praise it last evening! If indeed there is any such Thing as quality in our Country. When you thanked me, in strict propriety you was in error. You did wrong. I gave you nothing. I was Trustee for our Country. Had I known a Man more fit, more deserving, you would not have been selected. You have given me your own. I have accepted your own. I ought therefore to give you ten thousand, thousand Thanks, and you ought to have given me none at all. You have a head metaphisical enough to dis- cern, and an heart suscescible enough to feel these nice distinctions : and therefore to be convinced that I ought OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 307 not always to lay under the Weight of this great obli- gation. I feel the Force of all your "But", "Butt". "Butts". I know of but one " Butt" however, that ought to have been decisive. This is the rash Insult to Jefferson and Madison, in the Address to Congress. This I give up. I would have done as Jefferson did. I could have done no otherwise. And this I consider as an eternal sen- tence against the Man to Poverty and Obscurity and Inutility. I never heard him speak of either Ws. with any Con- tempt. He has always been cautious before me. He once sent me when I was President, a Bundle of Papers of Complaint against Wilkinson, from Detroit. Upon the calmest, coolest, most impartial and deliberate Con- sideration of them I thought they did more honor than any thing else to Wilkinson. The amount of them all was that he had proclaimed Martial Law at Detroit. This I believed to be necessary because the Inhabitants there were Tories, and I fear they remain Tories still. I therefore acquitted Wilkinson and continued him in Command all my time. I rejoice in the success of your son Benjamin, and in the happiness of all your Family. Benjamin will return laden with knowledge and experience. You have done wisely in avoiding Controversy about the questions whether Apostate Angells, fallen Angels, or in other words Devils, possessed the Demoniacs of the New Testament, or whether Demons, and Belzebub the Prince of Demons, possessed People in Judea. The great Question whether Demons and their Prince are the same spirits as the Devil and his Angels, did not necessarily fall within the Compass of your Inquiry. 308 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Shakespeare and Pringle were not adepts in the science of Biblical Criticism, which is now in the full tide of successful experiment. [Where will it end ?] See our Cambridge General Repository. Have you treated of St. Anthony's Fire, St. Vitus's dance, and the Night Mare? these are all Madness, or at least produce Madness. The Antients seem to have thought all Madness, Possession. The Devil is not once in the New Testa- ment said to possess Man, Woman, Child or Hog. The word Hat/Mviov occurs fifty two times: Satnwv three: thirteen, 8tafto)w<; not once. Search then the Distinction between Demon and Devil, and you will find it as great as between Heathenism and Christianity. But what is all this to your purpose? Unless it be to give you suspicion that I am in danger of becoming a fit subject for your Treatise and your Chair ? For my part I am of Opinion, with mad Johnson, that all Mankind are a little mad. You cannot therefore describe all the species of this distemper nor cure them all. I believe none possessed, either by Devil or Demon. It is all Vice or distemper, moral or physical evil. To be sober, I believe Mr. Madison will be again elected: and upon the whole, I wish it, because I see no Man who will be likely to do better. The Nation it is true is greatly and justly allarmed at the Imbecility of the last twelve years. But those who brought us into this Confusion are the best qualified to bring us out of it, if they can be made to attempt it in the right way. Madisons private opinions and Jeffersons too, are more correct than their public Conduct has been, for that has been dictated by their Party. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 309 Neither Mr. Clinton nor Mr. Jay, nor Mr. Martial, nor any other Man that occurs to me could in the present Circumstances serve us so effectually as Mr. Madison, if Congress will let him. But if Congress at their next session do not commence some serious efforts for a Navy, though Mr. Madison may be chosen, a diss- affection will be so deeply radicated in New York and all the northern States as to parrallyze all the Measures of Government and produce a disastrous War, by sea and Land, and possibly a rupture of the Union. Be- sides Mr. Madisons Majority will be very small. I am perfectly of your opinion that the federal denial of the Justice of the War, by which they identify them- selves with the Tories and the English is as great a blunder on their part, as any that has been committed by their antagonists these twelve years. The Federal- ists are as apt to stumble as the Republicans, and are no more to be trusted than they : yet as the latter are in possession of the fond affections of the People they can do better, if they will, than the former. I speak with defference however, having been so long out of the World. I am, dear sir, as ever your affectionate and obliged Friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy October 22. 1812. Dear Sir,-If you had investigated the Question, concerning Possessions or that about matter and spirit, in your Treatise on the Diseases of the Mind it could have been only by way of digressions like Swifts di- 21 310 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. gressions concerning Criticks, his digression of the modern kind, his digression in praise of digressions, his digression concerning Madness, in the Tale of the Tub : which although they are all inexpressibly entertaining and ineffably ridiculous, I have always wished out of the Book, when my Mind has been engaged in the Charac- ters and Conduct of Peter Martin and Jack. Whether the Mind, the Intellect, be matter or spirit, can never be determined till we know what Matter is and what spirit is, and untill we can give a logical or mathematical deffinition of both. We know nothing of either. We can define neither. We know nothing but attributes, qualities and effects. Therefore I think Berckley had more sense than Leibnitz, Clark, Boling- broke or Priestley. Bercley never denied the existence of Matter. And Priestley had been wiser, had he not denied the existence of spirit. You have therefore wisely determined to avoid this question as well as the other. The Phenomina which you I suppose will call symptoms are certainly all that is within your reach. Madness is certainly a distemper both of Body and Mind as we distinguish in common parlance and vulgar language. I agree in all your opinions of Banks, systems, suf- frage and Washington City : tho I am not absolutely against a Bank and a Fund. Washington City and the ten mile square Territory was as corrupt and selfish an Intrigue and bargain as any yet occurred, or recorded in our history. This never will be recorded, unless it should be by me. If I have never related it to you in Conversation, I will state it in a Letter if you wish it. To borrow your own Words "Wealth, Family In- fluence, Talents, Industry, Ambition, and Avarice have OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 311 oversett every Republick that has ever yet existed on this Globeand it may be added in my own, written between 20 & 30 years ago, There is no special Prov- idence for us. We are not a chosen People, that I know of. If we are, we deserve it as little as The Jews. The ignorant, corrupt Coxcomb, who abused me for that sentiment did not convince me of its error. I still assert we have no reason to believe, that there is a special Providence for us. We must and we shall go the Way of all the Earth. We ought to contend, to swim, though against Wind and tide as long as we can, and the poor injured, deceived, mocked and insulted People will struggle till Battles and Victories and Con- quests dazzle the Majority into adoration of Idols. Then come Popes and Emperors, Kingdoms and Hie- rarchies. I wish I could exchange visits of Daughters or grand Daughters with you for a few Months or weeks or days, but my poor Girls are confined to one narrow spot. I congratulate Miss Dexter on her good fortune in visiting your Family. Last night brought me a report of another act of a single day. Van Ranselaer! I hope it is only fiction. But whether true or false: how long shall we blunder on ? I am accused of saying last Fall when Canada was conquered by a Word or a Thought, We are be- ginning the War "Tail foremost." I will not plead guilty to this charge, but acknowledge I said "We begin at the wrong end." Instead of repenting or apologizing I almost wish I had used and avowed an expression more in the stile of Rabelais and Swift, which would have been propagated to the ends of the earth: for Mankind are sure to remember expressions 312 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. of vulgar Buffoonery and to forget everything else. This sublime and profound expression shall remain blank * * * * deest valde desideratum. I sometimes meet an old grey headed Man, with trembling Tongue and Limbs and shaking quavering voice, whose countenance lights up at the sight of me, and says " Do you remember the time in our Revolu- tionary War when I met you, and said to you, What shall we do ? Things look so dark I am in despair. You answered me quick, Never fear! We shall blunder through !" This was indeed my constant Maxim through the whole Revolution. That we did blunder, through the whole, both in Congress and in the Army is most certain. That we blundered through cannot now be denied. I wish H. had written his history of Ws. Battles and Campains ! You or I could write the Blunders in Congress. The Word " Peace" according to your Postscript has done great Things. But do you know how our Feder- alists account for the fondness of the Southern States including Pensilvania for War? They say "Your Commerce is free, but ours is ruined by the War, and you hate us so heartily that you rejoice in any thing that can destroy us." There is in truth a rancorous Malignity in Pensilvania against New England. My Friend Gray, who made me a visit yesterday, is sanguine, is confident, that Congress, as soon as they meet, will order thirty Frigates to be built as soon as possible. When I see this vote, I shall think Common Sense is resuming its Empire, and Astraea returning to the World. If a solid Peace, equal Commerce, and common Justice, are ever to return, even for a period of any duration, the U. S. must restore them. The OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 313 little young shepherd with his sling must get the better of the great Goliah. Achilles, offended at the seizure of his virgin, has re- tired to his ships. The Greeks are no longer a match for Priam and his sons Hector and yEneas. Do you understand the figure ? I believe not. I must then be Commentator. Achilles is New England : his Girl is a Navy. There is no Patroclus, whose death would bring the Hero out. Agamemnon must restore the Beauty. The wine which Saint Paul found so good for the stomack is not less delightful to the Ladies. Oh ! how they love it. I foresee it is not to be long lived. It will not be permitted to meliorate or pejorate by age. So much the more grateful ought we all to be for the blessing. I close by an earnest exhortation, to all Friends of our Country to cry aloud and spare not, for an irresist- able naval power on the Lakes and water communica- tions from Michillimachinae to Montreal. Without this nothing but defeat, disgrace, distraction and Ruin will be our portion, besides endless Murders, Massacres and Butcheries by the Indians on all our Frontier. If ever the English are again suffered to have a superiority on those waters, I shall think my Countrymen the stupidest of all Nations. I would not disdain to borrow the finest flight of Fisher Ames's im- agination and call upon every Father and every Mother in every Log house upon the Continent to demand a Navy on the Lakes to protect the blood of their sons and Daughters. I am as ever your obliged Friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. 314 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. My dear Doctor in Law, Divinity, Politicks, Medi- cine, and Surgery &c. &c. &c.,-I am in great per- plexity. Every day, something occurs to puzzle my feeble Intellect. To whom can I apply for instruction so properly as to you, who are so great a Master. A nation of Bees, in the Wilderness in a State of Nature, has sagacity enough to wander about till they find a hollow Tree, in which they can be screened and sheltered, both from the scorching beams of the sun in Summer, which would melt their wax and drown them in their own honey : and from the fierce Winds and sharp Frosts of Winter which might scatter, divide and blow them away, or freeze them to death in half an hour, in one heap. They thus protect themselves too from the King Birds, and from inimical neibouring Nations of the same Species with themselves, perhaps from the parent Hive or from a sister Hive, older or younger. When they have thus prepared and accom- plished their system of national defence, they turn their attention to their internal and domestic policy. What public orderI What mathematical accuracy ! What security of private property ! What Industry ! What Enterprize ! And to crown all, what inexorable Justice, in banishing all the idle banking drones, who in idleness and luxury fatten on the pillage of industrious Bees ! A Nation of Ants, will look forward into Futurity, and spare no labour or expence in raising a mountain in comparison with their own size and stature, higher than Wachusett, Allegany or the Andes, to defend themselves and families from the predatory Birds and Insects and to shelter them from Storms and snows and Quincy November 7. 1812. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 315 frosts. With indefatigable Toil, with incessant labour through the whole summer, will they replenish their Mag- azines with Provisions and Comforts, upon speculation against the Winter. A Wood Pecker, from a prognostication of dangers from storms and ennemies, will almost break her neck and wear out her Bill in pecking a vault in a Tree, for the safety of herself her eggs and her young ones. A Swallow seeks a barn and a Martin a Chimney, from a foresight of Danger from Birds of Prey, from rats and mice, as well as from winds and storms. The Squirrills have penetration into futurity. They seek an assylum in Hollow Trees, in caves of the rocks, in Crevices in stone walls, and hoard up magazines of Provisions in Nutts against Winter, when they know they cannot steal corn from the fields or Cribbs of any of the neighbouring Farmers. The wild Geese speculate into futurity: so do the Brants and Ducks. They foresee storms and Winter and take great care in season to fly to the Southward in Autumn. In Spring they foresee scalding heats of summer approaching and have the wisdom to return to the Northward to avoid them. The Swine foreseeing Rain will run about and labour hard though ever so fat, heavy and lazy to gather and collect straws and husks to make them a warm and dry bed to sleep in. There is a Bugg: have you ever observed him ? He will labour like an Ant or a Bee, to collect a certain species of Matter, and to roll it up into a Ball. He will round, smooth, and polish it into a Globe as per- fectly spherical as DeMoivre or Sir Isaac could do it, till it is ten times more bulky than himself. It is truly 316 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. admirable to see with what dexterity activity and stren- uous exertion, he will toil to roll it over and over till he stores it away in his Cave for his Winters Nourishment and Sustenance. This provident, speculating little Ani- mal goes by a Name that Doctor Swift would not hesitate to write at full length. But as it would offend Dr. Rushes delicacy it shall not pollute my page. I may say it begins with the two syllables Tumble. I lately read in a national Intelligencer, to my great edification a learned and ingenious address to the People signed by a Committee of half a dozen or half a score Democrats of Philadelphia, among whom the notable Mr. Binns, the associate of McCorkle, is one. Part of the address seems to be intended as a Justi- fication, it is more than an Apology, for our Want of Preparation for War by Land and Sea and our conse- quent Defeats and disappointments. And it gravely and solemnly asserts that " a Republican Government, or a Democratical Government, cannot make Prepara- tions for War, upon speculation." Now this is'my Puzzle. I dare not apply my carnal Reason to this Doctrine and inferr from it, that the Democrats of Pensilvania have less sense than the wild Geese, the swallows, or the Tumble What then shall I think ? The first Man if he had been created in the woods wild Beasts, if he knew their carnivorous Nature would arm himself against them with stones and Clubbs. Si velis Pacem para Bellum is as old as the Latin Tongue. But if the wisdom of all ages and Nations had declared against it, the authority of Divus Wash- ington, one would think, would be sufficient to overrule it all, with these People. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 317 Our country exhibits, a spectaculum dignum ! If the enterprise at Queenstown was as imprudent as that at Louisburg in 1745 or that of Bunkers Hill in 1775, it was as bravely fought as either. I stand astonished at the sight of our Country ! If effectual Measures are not soon taken for a Navy on the Lakes and a Navy on the Ocean, it will fly to Pieces like a Glass Bubble. I feel for the Government however: well knowing by costly experience, that Binn's Apology is too well founded in this Nation. your anxious friend John Adams. The passage referred to in this Letter is in an ad- dress "To the democratic Republicans of Pensilvania," signed by John Holgate, John Binns, John Geyer and John Porter, Oct. 12. 1812. " While our national Government preserves its Re- publican form and spirit, there can be no accumulation of Treasure, no enlistment of Armies, no equipment of Navies, in the time of Peace, upon the speculation of War: and it is, perhaps, the concomitant inconven- ience of the inestimable blessings of such a Govern- ment, that its Wars will always commence in a state comparatively unprepared for the supply, as well as for the discipline of its public Force." Dr. Rush. Quincy Nov. 29. 1812. Dear Sir,-I have recd. your valuable volume, on the diseases of the mind, which will run Mankind still deeper into your Debt. You apprehend "Attacks." 318 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. I say, the more the better. I should like the sport so well, that, if I could afford the expence, I would adver- tise a reward of a gold Medal to the Man of Science, who should write the best essay upon the question whether the Writings of Dr. Franklin or Dr. Rush do the greatest honour to America, or the greatest good to Mankind. I have no doubt, but such a point mooted, would produce a salutary Controversy. You would not have been so industrious nor so useful, if you had not been persecuted. These afflictions are but for a moment and they work out greater Glory. Dream for Dream. When it was proposed to insti- tute a Democracy in France, I dreamed that I was mounted on a lofty scaffold in the Centre of a great plain in Versailles, surrounded by an innumerable con- gregation of five and twenty Millions at least of the Inhabitants of the Royal Menagerie. Such a multitude is not to be described or enumerated in detail. There were among them the elephant, Rhinoceros, the Lion, the Hysena, the Wolf, the Bear, the Fox, and the Wild Cat, the Rat, the Squirrel, as well as the Calf, the Lamb, and the Hare. There were Eagles, Hawks, and Owls of all sorts and storks and Cormorants and Crows, and Ducks, Geese, Turkies, Partridges, Quails, Rob- bins, Doves and Sparrows. There were Whales, Sharks, Dolphins, as well as Cod, Mackerel, Herrings and even Minims and shiners. My design was to persuade them to associate under a free soverign Annimatical Government, upon the unadulterated Principles Liberty, Equality and Frater- nity, among all living Creatures. I had studied a long speech, arranged it in exact Method, with a Beginning, a middle and an end, with an exordium and a very OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 319 pathetic Peroration, according to the most orthodox rules of the most approved Rhetoricians. Throwing my eyes round and gracefully bowing to my respect- able audience, I began My beloved Brothers ! We are all Children of the same Father, who feeds and cloaths us all. Why should we not respect each others rights and live in peace and mutual Love ? I had not pronounced all these words, before the elephant pouted his Probosis at me in contempt, the Lion roared, the Wolf howled, the Cats and Dogs were by the ears, the Eagles flew upon the Turkies, the Hawks and Owls upon the Chickens and Pidgeons. The Whale rolled to swallow twenty at a mouthful, and the Shark turned on his side to snap the first he could reach with his adamantine Teeth. In a word such a scene of Carnage ensued as no eye had ever seen, and no Pen or Pencil ever described. Frightened out of my Witts, I leaped from the stage and made my escape : not however without having all my Cloaths torn from my back and my skin lacerated from head to foot. The terror and the scratches awakened me and convinced me forever, what a Fool I had been. The question concerning Canada is so great and complicated with so many considerations present and future, that I do not like to form any settled opinion upon it:-knowing that the result must be uncertain I leave it to the Counsels of the Nation, acquiescing in whatever they may determine. Of one Thing I am certain that a decided superiority of Force upon the Lakes will henceforward be indispensable for us, or a stipulation that neither Nation shall have any. It was easy to foresee at the Peace of 1783, that as long as 320 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. neither Party should have any military Power upon those waters, none would be necessary, but as soon as one should begin the other must follow. This neces- sity will now excite an emulation, that will cost us as much to maintain, perhaps as it will to conquer the Province, when no Artillery will be wanted so far from the Ocean. The Christian Religion was intended to give Peace of Mind to its Disciples in all cases whatsoever: but not to send civil or political Peace upon earth but a sword, and a sword it has sent: and peace of Mind too to Mil- lions, by conquering death and taking away his sting. Anecdote for Anecdote. I recollect to have heard in 1774, the sagacious Prediction of Isaac Norris of Fair Hill: and I well remember another of another sachem of equal Reflection and Penetration. Colonel James Otis, the sire of all the Otis's you have ever seen or heard, told me, that in 1758 in com- pany with many Members of our Provincial Legisla- ture, when the conversation turned upon the expedi- tion against Quebec, John Choate of Ipswitch a Colonel of Militia and Member of the House said " The Army was gone against Quebeck, but he hoped they would never take it." The whole Company cried out in as- tonishment, " What do you mean ? No Man has been more active in forwarding every measure to promote the Enterprize, and now not wish it success! What can have got into your head ?" " It is true I have done every Thing to give a Check to the French Power: but as soon as the English conquer Canada, they will take hold of us, and handle us worse than the French and Indians ever did or ever can." Two years had not passed before the British Cabinet ordered Charles Pax- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 321 ton and his Sub. Cockle to apply for Writts of Assist- ants to break open Houses, Cellars, Ships, Shops and Casks to search for uncustomed Goods. Our English Cousins, by Adam and Eve, may laugh at our uneducated sages and Heroes: but what then? His forecast was as sure and his Bravery as great and his education as Classical for any thing that I know as the Duke of Marlborough's. He was one of our Mas- sachusetts Colonels who conquered Cape Breton in 1745. You may judge of his Modesty as well as of his Taste by an Inscription on a Bridge which he built and I have often read, when I rode Circuits and at- tended Courts at Ipswitch. CHOATE BRIDGE, BUILT BY TOWN AND COUNTY. I always hear the name of George Clymer with pleas- ure, and am happy that he still thinks with us. I congratulate you upon the certain prospect of the reelection of Mr. Madison. I have nothing to say, be- cause I know nothing, against Mr. Clinton. I read Panegyricks upon him and Phillipicks against him: but these are the common lot of all Candidates. His elec- tion at this time would have produced such an unnatu- ral confusion of administration and opposition as would have been very dangerous. I am grieved and ashamed at the Apostacy of so many People in our Northern States. But the French Revolution, its Anarchy first and its military Despotism at last, have frightened them out of their habitual cool £ood sense. I am once and forever yours Dr. Rush. John Adams. 322 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy Decr. 8. 1812. Dear Sir,-On horseback, on my way to Weymouth on a visit to my Friend Dr. Tufts I met a Man leading a Horse, who asked if I wanted to buy a Horse. Ex- amining the Animal in his eyes, ears, head, Neck, shoulders, Legs, Feet and Tail, and enquiring of his Master his age, history, Temper habits &c. I found he was a colt of three years old that month of November, his sucking Teeth were not shed, he was seventeen or eighteen hands high, bones like massy timbers, ribbed quite to his Hipps, every Way broad strong and well filled in Proportion : as tame, gentle, good natured and good humoured as a Cosset Lamb. Thinks I to my- self, This noble Creature is the exact Emblem of my dear Country. I will have him and call him my hobby. He may carry me, five and twenty or thirty years if I should live. I ride him every day when the weather suits : but I should shudder, if he should ever discover or feel his own Power. By one vigorous exertion of his strength, he might shake me to the ground, on the right hand or the left, pitch me over his head, or throw me back over his rump. In either case, I might get scratches or bruises which you know are not easily healed at my age. One day after a long ride upon Hobby I came home, well exercised, in good health, and gay spirits, went to bed, fell asleep, and dreamed. An open Theatre was erected in the Centre of a vast plain in Virginia, where were assembled all the Inhabitants of U. S. eight millions of People, to see a new Play, advertised as the most extraordinary that ever was represented on any Stage, excelling Menander Terence, Shakespeare, Corneille and Moliere. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 323 I shall not give you the Dramatis Personae at length : but Garrick, Mrs. Siddons and Cook were conspicuous among a Company proportionally excellent. I shall not give you the play, because I should have to com- pose one: and you must be sensible, that I have small pretensions to the Genius of Euripides and Racine. I shall only give you a hint of a part of one scene. A distant View of the Ocean was presented with Hull and his Constitution blazing away his horrizontal volcano of a broadside at the Guerriere, which is soon seen to explode : after the explosion, the Constitution sails majestically but slowly along the whole length of the Theatre and comes to anchor, in full sight of the Audience : then Jones with his Frolick succeeded and anchored near the Constitution and it was remarkable that the audience applauded him with as much enthusi- asm as Hull. Next came Decatur in The United States followed by The Macedonian, and anchored in their order, in fair sight of the whole Nation. After a pause for the spectators to gaze and admire, Mrs. Siddons was selected to address the audience. Slowly and gracefully swimming over the stage she approached near enough to be beared by all, with all the advantages of her Face, Figure, Gestures and intonations, pointing with her hand to the glorious spectacle of the Navy, in the words of Adam to Eve when she first saw her face in the clear stream, she only said "America! This, fair Creature, is thyself!" " Sampson ! There, is thy Lock of divine Power !" " Hercules ! Behold the emblem of thy Strength, which is to subdue " Monsters and conquer Oppressors." " David ! Lo thy sling, which is to bring Goliah to Reason !" Observing that this overgrown Colt of a Nation had, 324 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. after all this, no feeling of its strength nor any sense of its Glory, any more than my Hobby, I obtained a speaking Trumpet, and made a Motion, which was car- ried, that the Play should be dismissed and The Nation resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House on the State of the Nation, Dr. Rush in the Chair. It was my intention to record the Phizzes of the Tories, about one-third : the speeches of the deep Democrats, about another Third who abused me so much a dozen or fourteen years ago on account of my Navy which is now saving them from destruction. The Exultations of the remaining third, who had been always friendly to naval defence, which indeed after all, amounted to little more than " Did we not always tell you so?" The sensations and Reflections of Jefferson, Madison, Giles &c. as well as their orations you may imagine. Jay King Morris and DeWitt spoke at length. McKean Clymer &c. spoke from Pensilvania. Cheves and Lounds from S. C. Pope and Clay from Kentucky. I shall give a sketch only of the speech of John Randolph, and that only on a separate Piece of Paper which I conjure you by our Friendship to burn, the mo- ment you have read it, for it is fit only to be seen by your eye. Nimrod Hughes and Christopher Macpher- son spoke next after John Randolph. The vote was called and a small Majority, heavily and languidly ap- peared for a few 74s and twenty Frigates. Oh! The Wisdom! The Foresight and the Hind- sight, the rightsight and the Leftsight! The North- sight and the Southsight, the Eastsight and the West- sight, that appeared in that august assembly! Many Quaker women, Dr. Dwight and Dr. Esgood spoke, 6>ZZ> FAMILY LETTERS. 325 and had Joel been there no doubt he would have deliv- ered an epic Poem. So much Business could not be done in a short time. The sun now blazed through the Windows upon my eyes and awoke me. Vive la Bagatelle. Dulce est desipere. In my dream Porter and his Alert, Chauncey and his Flotilla on the Lake were not forgotten, they were all at anchor with the Frigates : but in reducing the Thing to writing in the morning, in haste I inadvertently omitted them. The History of the Hobby Horse is litteral Truth. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Dec. 21. 1812. Dr. Sir,-Never! Never be weary in the ways of well dreaming! Any one of your Dreams is worth to the Moralist and the Statesman any Fable of Esop or Phedrus, La Fontaigne, More or Gay. And why should your ancient wisdom deny itself the relaxation of a little folatre, Gayety, when it gives so much pleasure to your Friends, hurts the feelings of nobody, and communicates useful Instruction to all. My dream of an Animalical Constitution, had no squint at the American Republick. De Republica Gallicana narrabatur, or narrata fuit: I am not critick enough in the Language to determine which tense, is the most grammatical, or conformable to statuary Modesty. There is a Gentleman here, more unfortunate than 22 326 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. you are, from the same Causes. I assure you my sen- sibilities are rent and torne for him. Such another In- stance of persevering and overwhelming Persecution of Merit, I have never yet known in America. Dr. Waterhouse I mean. Can nothing be done to save an amiable Family and a Man of first rate Merit from op- pression, from becoming a sacrifice to Tory Vengeance, and professional envy? Your curious fact, as you observe, is not singular. My Case is like yours. " Those who owe me most obligations are the most hostile to me." The Essex Junto owe their existence and all their Consequence to me. They adopted my sentiments and plan of Govern- ment in i77qand in 1788, and availed themselves of my writings and my Influence and of my Patronage, to lay the foundation of all that Power which they are now abusing to the danger of the Nation. Of all our Revo- lutionary Colleagues and Coadjutors I was invariably the most tender, the most compassionate the most in- dulgent to the Tories, as I could exemplify to you in a hundred Instances which would fill a volume. This Conduct was dictated to me, not only by Humanity and Candour, but by a desire to unite the American People, who, you know, were divided in their hearts, as much as they are now, through the whole Revolution. You have given me more pleasure than you can conceive, by your account of your Independence and Affluence. But I can by no means unite with your ex- cellent Lady in her advice. Your Pupils will lose by your Retirement advantages both in reputatioh and in- struction of greater value to their future Lives, than your Modesty or their Inexperience can now estimate. Your Patients will lose what no young Physician can OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 327 supply: perhaps no old one. Your son James will be established in practice under your protecting wing, sooner than without you. Your own health will be better preserved by a continuance in your established habits of thinking and acting, of studies and exercises, than by the great and sudden Changes they must undergo in a Country retirement. Your Daughters Husband must do his duty and we must all be re- signed to his fate, whether prosperous or adverse. He will be, I doubt not a generous enemy and I hope and believe that he will meet with none but generous enemies. Our Naval Victories will mark an Era in the History of the World. They have revealed to Mankind two most important Truths, which, tho' I have believed them these forty years, few other Men ever suspected and fewer still would believe, viz. 1. That the British Navy is vulnerable, and 2. That the American Navy is the only one able to check and limit its Power. What effects will the splendid and immortal examples of our American Naval Conquerors have upon the Minds of the French, the Dutch, the Russian, the Span- ish, the Danish, the Swedish and the Portuguese officers and Men ? The effect upon British officers is obvious. Instead of seeking us, as they do all other Nations, they run away. My mind is however not at ease. The Disgrace upon disgrace the disasters following disasters which have attended our officers and troops upon the Inland waters: the disposition manifested by the Southern States, during the first twelve years to weaken the Government and embarrass all its operations : too faith- 328 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. fully imitated by the Northern States, during the twelve last: appear to tend towards a general dissolution. Comfort me if you can. My hopes are all in a Navy. Adieu. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Deer. 29. 1812. Dr. Sir,-I have not done with your Letter of the 19th. I care not half so much about Red Heiffer, as I do about The Taureau blanc, the White Bull of Vol- taire. " All volition the effect of his will, operating upon Mind." My pious learned Parson Wibirt, once said to me " I believe God is the Author of Sin: but I would not say it, because of the dangerous tendency of it." My Friend! read in Virgil, Jupiters acknowl- edgment that though Fate had given him the command of Gods and Men, yet he and the whole universe, were only instruments of Fate. Read Edwards, read Priest- ley, read Jaques le Fataliste et son Maitre, and after all ask yourself whether you have not a Conscience, that still tells you, that you have sometimes done wrong, and sometimes right. There is not now, never was, and never will be more than one Being, who will un- derstand the universe. Sixty years have I puzzled my- self, with Clark and Leibnitz and Baxter &c. to no purpose. I know no more now than I did at 17 years of age. Hunc solem et Stellas et decedentia certis Tempora momentis, sunt qui formidine nulla Inibuti spectent. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 329 Let us descend to earth where it is our duty to crawl. You must know that I have the honor to be President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Massachusetts Society for promoting Agriculture, and of the Board of Trustees of this Society and of the board of visitors of the Professorship of Natural His- tory at the University. There are twelve of us of these boards. We meet once a Month, on the last Sat- urday at each others houses at our own expense. Every one, but myself, is a stanch Anti-Jeffersonian and Anti-Madisonian, and at the late election, Clin- tonian. These are all real Gentlemen : all but me very rich: have their City Palaces and Country Seats, their fine Gardens and greenhouses and hot houses &c. &c. &c. Men of Science, Letters and Urbanity, even Spartacus, out of a Newspaper, or a Pamphlet, is all this. On the last Saturday of October at Mr. Pomroys of Brighton, the Gentlemen were in good spirits and in- dulged in a little political Conversation, the detail of which would be too long. I had not agreed to the selection of Mr. Clinton, though I should acquiesce, if he should be chosen. Spartacus the Slave ! Spartacus the Rebel! Spar- tacus the Rebel Slave! Spartacus the Rebel Leader of Rebel Slaves ! asked me with an air of candour, What Course I would have pursued, had I been continued President to this time ? I said that must have de- pended on Congress. The Gentlemen expressed a wish to know my single opinion of the best plan. I said the time would fail me to give details, but I could give in short hand, a sketch of a few principal strokes. The Gentlemen wished to hear them. I said, I would. 330 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. not have repealed the taxes: no, not a shilling of them. With that Revenue I would have fortified the Frontiers on the Lakes and Rivers as well as on the Ocean. I would have gradually increased the Navy, by additional ships every year that we might be in a condition to meet the mighty Mistress of the Ocean on her own element, and convince her that she is not all powerful there. I would have declared war against Great Britain five or six years ago when the King issued that most atrocious of all violations of the Law of Nations, his Proclamation for impressing seamen from our ships. I would not have said a word about Canada: but would have employed all our resources at sea. If the war had continued for years and the Nation become hot enough to demand Canada, I would not have invaded it till we had a decided supremacy of Naval Power upon all the Lakes and waters from Michelemachinac to Montreal if not to Quebeck: nor then till I had an Army of 35 or 40 thousand Men. With such an Army in four divisions, a small one at Michillimachinac, a larger at Kennebeck River, a larger at Detroit and the largest of all at Niagara, I would have made short work with Canada and incorporated it into the Union. "What a Satyre," said Spartacus, " upon our Administration !" Here I was called to my Carriage to come home, having a dozen miles to ride after dark. Consequently heard no more remarks. ever yours John Adams. Dec. 30. This moment the sun rising in the south east, and blazing with glorious effulgence on my eyes, through the window, reminds me of the glorious News OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 331 in last Nights Paper, from Washington of the Law to build four 74 and six forty fours. Io tryumphe ! The Sun now shines upon our Country. A happy New Year! Dr. Rush. John Adams again. Quincy Jan. 4. 1813. Honoured and learned Sir,-Be pleased to accept my humble Duty for the notice you have condescended to take of me. I will do my best to shake a little ani- mation into my Master for a few days or months or possibly years. But what is the prospect before him ? What can he expect? or hope? or wish? He is 77 and more: three and twenty years will make him 100: thirteen years will make him 90: three years will bring him to fourscore. And what are three, thirteen, or three and twenty years, at any stage of Life, in Infancy, Man- hood or old age ? especially in extream old age ? How many Pains and Aches, which I cannot shake away, has he to endure? How much low spirits? how many gloomy anxious moments for the dangers, disgraces, disasters, degeneracy, vices, Follies, Ignorance, Stupidity, and Vanity of his Country ? How many Wives, Daugh- ters, Sons, Grand Children, Brothers, Cousins may he lose in 23, 13 or 3 years? How many of the few re- maining public political Friends must disappear? Even Dr. Rush himself? Oh ! if he were to read this he would shed many Tears ! Pray conceal it from him ! But there are other things. How much Ecclesiastical Bigottry superstition and Persecution may he have to 332 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. bewail ? How much Calumny, Intrigue, Party spirit, political Fury and civil war may he have to deplore ? I will leave the rest sir, to your profound Reflections. I will only compare the foregoing periods with some of his past Life. Fifteen years he spent at schools, Male and female Grammar and A. B. C. When he played Truant, and when he did not he spent all his mornings Noons and Nights in making and sailing Boats, in swimming, skaiting, flying kites and shooting in mar- bles, Ninepins, Bat and Ball, Football &c. &c. &c. Quoits Wrestling and sometimes Boxing &c. &c. &c. and what was no better running about to Quiltings and Husk- ings and Frolicks and Dances among the Boys and Girls!!! These 15 years went off like a Fairy Tale. Apply such a 15 years to his present age and it will make 93. He then spent 4 years at Collidge. He had begun to love a Book. Farewell shooting skaiting swimming and all the rest. Oh ! the Mathematicks the Meta- physicks, the Logick not forgetting Classicks ! Seeking Books and Bookish Boys, devouring Books without advice and without Judgement. The 4 years were gone like a tale that is told. Add such a 4 years to his present age and it will make him 81. He then passed 3 years at Worcester, among black Letter French and Latin Law and kept a school to pay for the priviledge. The 3 years were gone seemingly in the twinkling of an eye. Add such a three years to his present age and it will make him 80. He then re- moved to Braintree County of Suffolk in Massachusetts, where he spent 17 years at the Bar, riding Circuits, getting Money and a Wife and Children. But the 17 years flew away like the Morning Cloud. Add 17 such OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 333 years and you will make him 90. Four years were then spent in Congress, you know how. But they were gone like a dream. Add 4 such years to his present age and you make him 81. Then he was ten years in Europe: on the Mountain, Wave, over the Hills and far away. But the 10 years were gone he scarcely knew how. Add 10 such and they will make him 87. He had then an Interval of eight or nine months. Then he was 8 years V. President: a Target for the Archers: a Con- stant object of the Bilingsgate, scurrility, Misapprehen- sions, Misconstructions, Misrepresentations, Lies and Libels of all Parties. These 8 went away like a nau- seous Fog. Add such an 8 to his age and you make him 85. He was then President for 4 years. A Tale told by an Idiot full of sound and fury signifying Nothing. Vanity of Vanities all was Vanity! Add such a four years and you would infallibly kill him long before he would be 81. Twelve years have passed in solitude, far the pleasantest of all: yet where are they ? gone like the Dew, the blossoms, the Flowers and the Leaves. Add such another 12 and you make him 89: withered, faded, wrinkled, tottering, trembling, stum- bling, sighing, groaning, weeping! Oh ! I have some scruples of Conscience, whether I ought to preserve him : whether it would not be Charity to stumble, and relieve him from such a futurity. Add only 24 such years as have passed since his re- turn from Europe to America and you make him 101, an object of wonder and of Pity, to a gaping, staring World ! And now my venerable, learned, philosophical relig- ious virtuous excellent sir, permit me to ask whether this address is not as monitory a moral essay as any 334 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. in Johnsons Rambler or his Prince of Abyssinia? Re- member too it is a Horse that asks the question, and that Horse is Hobby. Dr. Rush. Dear Sir,-You have enough of Smiths Letters e'er this and Waterhouses too : all which you will be so good as to return. What the consequence of Smiths elec- tion may be I know not. I anticipate no advantage to him, but he will either correct the Policy and War of the Administration, in some degree, or he will ruin it, and himself with it, most probably. Manleys Ship was not a " private Ship of War." It was a public National Ship, under a national Flagg, under the Authority and in obedience to the Command of Congress, then the Sovereign of the Nation. She was fitted out by General Washington, at the public ex- pence by order of that Assembly in which was vested and concentrated the Supream, Sovereign and absolute Authority and Power of the Nation : an authority more absolute and Power more decisive at that time and the next year, than has ever been possessed since by any legislative and Executive Body in the United States. The next year, 1776 Captain Talbot was fitted out, in other ships from New York, by General Washington at the public expence by virtue of the same Powers, and in obedience to the same orders of Congress, and took more ships, made more Prisoners, and captured more property, than Jones and Barry both ever did in their lives. I was about to indulge my vexation in a peevish paragraph. But I will put it on a separate Paper which I enjoin you to burn. Quincy Jan. 29. 1813. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 335 Our Brother Clymer is pretty severe upon us. But whose Flour, Tobacco and Cotton " makes honour kick the Beam ?" I hope the Penetent Saint will be forgiven his Anti Novangliasm ! But that is a Prejudice, a Dis- temper of the Mind, a contagious one too: with which The Quakers, The Irish, and the Scotch and the whole Body of Presbyterians have infected the soul of every Man, Woman and Child in Pensilvania : your own pure, philosophical and Christian Soul not excepted. As to perpetual motion, I will give you my opinion. When it shall repent the Almighty, and it shall grieve him to the heart that he has made the material, intel- lectual and social universe: determine to return to his eternal solitude: annihilate the whole Creation except one 24 Pounder well loaded, one Man to fire it and air enough to discharge it: and when that one Man shall discharge his 24 Pound Ball that Ball will move to all eternity in a right Line: unless the Man, Gun and Ball should be annihilated too. Then and not till then will perpetual Motion of Matter stirred by matter be dis- covered. Having prognosticated the time and manner of the Invention and discovery of perpetual Motion, I will now give you the Pedigree of Redheffer. He is descended from the White Bull into which Nebuchadnezzar was metamorphosed. That was a beautiful Bull. All the Heiffers black, blue, white, brown, brindled and red loved him. The Philadelphia Inventor of perpetual motion is descended from the red. A Pin. or a Pun is honour enough for the Invention and the Inventor. Why did he not demand a Patent? Dr. Thornton would have detected and exposed him. But to return to sober sense. Your Character of 336 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. The Hon. William Jones Esquire, the new Secretary of the Navy, gives me great and sincere pleasure. I shall probably have occasion to write to him on several oc- casions : for I am determined not to be bashfull in recommending Men of Merit whom I know, but in whom I have no personal Interest. Upon this Princi- ple I shall write in behalf of Dr. Waterhouse: and I pray you to write to Secretary Smith and pray him to have Dr. Waterhouse on his Mind and give a candid and impartial attention to such Recommendations as may be sent him. As to your Book, you must give it and all your other Writings, as Lord Bacon did "to your Country after a few Generations are overpas'd." No early and active Agent in the revolution ever was or will be forgiven, till all the early and active enemies of it and their Children and Disciples are dead, if then. I always knew it and expected it. Our Seamen continue to act like themselves : but I can never cease to lament the twelve years neglect of them. I am ever John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Feb. 3. 1813. Dear Sir,-I congratulate you, and your State and our Nation on the acquisition of such a Secretary of the Navy as you represent The Honourable William Jones to be. I shall certainly write him a Letter before long : for I am recommender General of Midshipmen and Pursers and Ensigns. I have not dared as yet to rise to a Lieutenant in Navy or Army. Talk not of Dignity. Nothing can be more ridiculous and con- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 337 temptible than the dignity of a President or a Gover- nor, whom every Puppy in the Streets, and every profli- gate scribbler in a prostituted Newspaper can call a Cheat, a Lyar, a Scoundrel, a Villain, a Knave and an Impostor when he pleases with Impunity. However I hope Pensilvania will no longer complain that they have not their share of Power. You have the Secre- tary of the Treasury : the Secretary of War, the Sec- retary of the Navy and the Controuler of the Treasury, and I presume will soon have The Surgeon and Physi- cian General of the Army. And how many Officers of the Navy and Army? Do you not see that Pensil- vania is to be pitted against New York ? And who can blame it ? I know your prudence too well, not to know that you will not answer these questions : and I approve of that Prudence. Feathers and Straws shew which Way the Wind blows. Such Beings as Jones and Barry sett up Pre- tensions ! And such Pretensions are abetted and trum- petted by State Pride ! I inclose you a Letter from Governor Langdon which you will be so good as to return to me, as you have those of Smith and Waterhouse by the next Post. Have you read Waterhouses Botanist? His inde- pendent Whig? or any other of his Writings? How these Things all go by Nation, by soil, by Climate, by Country, by State, by City, by Party ! Let me illus- trate by a familiar example. Had you been born in Scotland, composed and published your medical works there, and all your other Writings, mutatis mutandis, you would have been trumpeted throughout all Europe and celebrated in all Languages as a greater Man than 338 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Sir John Sinclair, or Walter Scott or Burns the other Poet: nay as a more usefull Author than Hume or Robertson. Had Waterhouse been born, educated, studied, wrote and published in Philadelphia, he would have been a Rival of Dr. Rush. Six, of the remaining nine, subscribers of the decla- ration of Independence will soon take their flight after Clymer. Jefferson, Gerry and Rush, have yet proba- bly a longer run. Jefferson is as tough as a lignum vitae knot. He rides Journeys on Horseback. I have within a few days a Letter from him, a very obliging one, written with all the precision of his best years. Not one symptom of decay or decline can I discern in it. Adieu. Dr. Rush. John Adams. ADDITIONAL LETTERS. ADDITIONAL LETTERS. Quincy August 6. 1810. My dear Philosopher,-Your Exhortation to Punct- uality and your Tic douloureuse had scarcely been read to my Family before a Lady Mrs. Quincy came in and took them away. This Lady, one of the best and wisest, had a Relation Mrs. Sturgis afflicted with this tormenting Tic, to whom she carried your Pamphlet, who has circulated it in Boston, till I am told every Physician in Boston has read it. I have heard of two other Cases, Mrs. Crofts an old Lady and Miss Eliza- beth Smith a young one have something very like it, and have had the Benefit of your Friendship in sending this valuable Publication to me. You Physicians are growing so familiar with Hem- lock, and Arsenick, and Mercury Sublimate, and Laud- anum, and Brandy and every Thing that used to frighten me, that I know not what you will do with us. For my Part I adhere to my old Regimen which I learned of Dr. Cadogan and especially Doctor Cheyne in my Youth. Milk and Vegetables, and Air and Ex- ercise, with a very little animal Food and still less spirituous Liquors, will last a Man almost seventy five Years. I am therefore contented without much assist- ance from your dangerous and scientific modern Dis- coveries. I should prescribe Milk and Water instead of Hemlock and Arsenick : but you know best. I must 23 341 342 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. confess you have almost annihilated many diseases which within my Memory have made great ravages among Men. Have your warlike Philadelphians considered that War with Napoleon is War with all Europe? And who are to be their Friends? The English? Would a Flock of Sheep who had been invaded by a Wolf, fly to an African Drove of Panthers for Protection ? Have they determined the Question, who began first to vio- late Neutral Rights? and who has done the most mis- chief in Europe, Asia, Africa and America? But this is Politicks which you very rationally and Philosophi- cally and Christianly hate. So do I.-There is one Comfort, in the other world, to which I am soon to travel, there are No Politicks. I rejoice with you in the Happiness of your Children. Mine are not so fortunate. They are comfortable How- ever, all but one. I wish Matthew Lion or John Ran- dolph had been sent to Russia. With invariable Friendship yours John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy July 31. 1811. Dear Sir,-I have several sweet letters from you, the last of which is of 20th. of this month. The Table of Cyder and Health and Poison and Death I have given to Dr. Tuft, who will propagate it. It is a concise but very comprehensive Result of long Experience, attentive observation and deep and close Thought. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 343 I was too wise to go to the great Celebration. The Heat would have killed me. It was here, as with you. The Fashion rules all. I remember I spoke on the day the vote was taken. But it was only a Recapitulation of Arguments which had been worn thread bare in the House by frequent Repetitions for a long time before. The great Contro- versy between Mr. Dickinson and me, on the question of Independence, I believe was before you came into Congress. I think you did not hear it. It was then that I was somewhat " carried out in spirit" as enthusi- astic Preachers sometimes express themselves. You may remember I wrote you twenty years ago that the Whigs had succeeded too well ever to be for- given. At the Moment when Independence was declared you know there were full one third of the People who de- tested it in their hearts, though they dared not confess it. In Pennsylvania and New York I have always thought there was at least one half. At the time, I believed that these two States would have abandoned Us, if they had not been afraid of the Union and their Neighbours on both sides. Among our Secret Enemies, were many old Families and very wealthy People, who with their descendants and connections, were, are and will be Haters of all who early acted a part in the Revolution. These have sometimes had the Government of the Nation in their hands, as well as many of the particular States. They always have and always will endeavour to blast the Characters of all, who they think had any active and efficient agency in the Revolution. Those labour to oblitterate all Gratitude, Esteem and Affection in the 344 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. People towards the really operative Whigs, by lavishing an hypocritical adoration on Washington whom they have always considered as the mere painted head of the Ship. I hear and see these Things I believe with as much Indifference as you do. My Brother Cranch, to whom I shewed your Letter very shrewdly asked me whether you did not mean to include me in the list of those " most preeminent in the general mental disease. Those who by Writing and Reasoning attempt to cure" the delirious ? What say you to this ? Mr. Marshalls distinction is a great Consolation. Success is not in our Power : Fidelity is. And I believe his compliment to you was very just. Mr. Smiths Pamphlet, like Mr. Randolphs Pamphlet, Mr. Monroes Pamphlet, and Mr. Pickerings Pamphlet will shout its hour upon the stage, furnish Conversation to the idle and the partial for a few days, and then be heard no more. It is however scandalous that such attacks should be countenanced and encouraged upon Presidents whose hands are tied, and cannot defend themselves. Yours forever John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy August 14. 1811. Upon honor, now, Rush! you cannot be serious in calling me mad to my Face. I learned a proper an- swer to you in Bedlam in England. In one of the visits I made to that Hospital, I took a few Turns in the Area, where some of the most harmless of the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 345 patients are permitted to walk. One of them, a decent looking Man joined me, and conversed very sensibly but with much animation for some time: but presently he began to complain, " He was a much injured Man." "Great Injustice was done him." "He was cruelly treated." " He was brought here very wrongfully." " They might with equal Reason have brought here the most rational Man in England." " Sir, I am as rational a Man as ever existed." This is my first answer to you, Rush. My second is, Nat. Lee, who was mad him- self, says somewhere, " there is a pleasure in being Mad, that none but Madmen know." As you, Rush, at present are not mad, however wrong you may have been formerly, you cannot at present conceive this sub- lime pleasure, and you have forgotten what it was. You also have forgotten one Phrase, or one member of the Period in my old Letter. "Sacrificed too much." The sentence was "The Whigs have done too much, suffered too much, sacrificed too much, and succeeded too well, ever to be forgiven." However you know there were but two Whigs in the Revolution, Franklin and Washington. Franklins sac- rifices we learn in your account of Richard Bache's Fortune of 530,000 Dollars : and Washingtons sacri- fices we learn from his will, in which it appears he left four or five hundred thousand dollars to his Nephews; and from the Federal City, by which he raised the value of his property and that of his family a thousand per cent, at an Expense to the Public of more than his whole Fortune. Poor Hancock who was once worth four times more than both of them was not a Whig. He spent a fortune instead of making one. 346 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Dr. Rush ! I request you, or your Son Richard, to write a Treatise or at least an Essay, on the Causes of the Corruption of Tradition and consequently of the Corruption of History. For myself I do believe that both Tradition and History are already corrupted in America as much as they ever were in the four or five first Centuries of Christianity; and as much as they ever were in any Age or Country in the whole History of Mankind. This is bold and strong, but is it exagger- ation ? I know your Prudence, your Reserve, your Caution, your Wisdom; and therefore, as I cannot blame you, I have for a long time given up all hope and expectation of frank answers to such home Questions. I have been severely attacked for too much Candor in acquitting Franklin in the affair of the "Secrete de Cabinet" and in the affair of Beaumarchais. I met a Gentleman in Boston Streets, a Friend of Franklin if ever he had one. He seemed staggered in his Faith. Sir, said he, I was conversing with John Coffin Jones upon your Character of Franklin. Jones said, "if any Man will shew me any possible means by which Frank- lin could have accumulated such a Property as he left at his Death, I will acquit him of the million, the secret of the Cabinet etc. But till then I must have suspicions." I answered " I believe I could suggest or at least con- jecture, Means whereby Franklin might have accumu- lated that Fortune without Crime or Guilt." But I had no idea of 530,000 Dollars. However your account of Lots and Houses in Phila- delphia and my knowledge and conjectures of other Things, may still account for the whole, without the supposition of Peculation. How shall we account for the selfishness, the avarice, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 347 the all grasping cupidity of those sublime Genius's. Boerhaave left a Fortune, as great or greater than Franklin or Washington.-And never spent a Doit. John Adams. P.S.-Have you received from travelling John Stewart In England his Sophiometer ? I am honoured with one, in gay Morocco. He is the only Man of Nature that ever existed, he says. He is one of your Madmen to be sure. He raves against Napoleon, and represents John Bull as all natural-i.e. all divine. Dr. Rush. Quincy August 25. 1811. Dear Rush,-If I could be considered as a Friend to the Family I should advise the Grand Children of Dr. Franklin to divide the Real Estate amonof them in their several proportions rather than to sell it in order to divide the Money. Not a Liver or a Stiver was ever committed to Dr. Franklin or any other Minister of the United States in Europe "to be employed in Secret Services to his Country." The Million of Livres, that have excited so much speculation, were a Part of the Loans or Donation of the King of France to the United States, which were found wanting in our bankers hands, who said he had accounted for all he had received. Dr. Franklin wrote to the Comte de Vergennes upon the subject and re- ceived for answer that that Million was " Le Secret du Cabinet." Mr. Morris's discovery most probably was no more than a suspicion which some Person or other communi- 348 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. cated to him. I presume he has no evidence : and that none will ever be obtained. Franklin's hands were pure as I believe in this Business. The Anecdotes of Col. Griffin and Col. Reed ought to be published. " Suum cuique Posteritas rependit" cannot be true unless the Truth is somewhere or other recorded by Contemporaries. I wish you would try your hand at an enumeration of the Causes of the Corruption both of Tradition and History in our day. Your observation on the Characters of the Heroes in the Bible is as profound as it is correct. There is no Divus Julius, Divus Augustus or Divus Tiberius in that Book. In Massachusetts as in Pensilvania, those who were active in the Revolution have died poor. Hancock once owned Houses, Lands, Lots and Wharves in the Town of Boston and landed Estates in allmost all Parts of New England which if he had held them to this day would be worth more than Washington and Franklin were both worth, as I believe. Yet he died, not abso- lutely but comparatively poor. Cushing S. Adams died poor. Paine, J. Adams and Gerry will die poor enough, though I hope not insolvent. Lincoln, Knox, Brooks, Sullivan, were not rich. The great James Otis Junior added nothing to his Property, but sacrificed immensely to the Public. I hope you will excuse me if I say a few words of myself, because you have read in some of our candid Federal Papers that I have been " overpaid." My Father, now Fifty Years a Saint in Heaven, was at the Expense of my Education at a Grammar School and at Harvard Colledge. By keeping a Public Gram- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 349 mar School in Worcester I defrayed the Expense of my Education to the Bar. In 1758 I was recommended by the greatest Lawyer Massachusetts ever produced, Jeremiah Gridley Esqr. and by Chief Justice Pratt and by Mr. Otis and Mr. Thatcher to the Court in Boston in October 1758, and then took the oath and was ad- mitted as an Attorney. In 1761 I was called to the Bar as a Barrister by the Supreme Court. In May 1761 my ever honoured and beloved Father died and by his will left me a House and Barn and Forty acres of Land, besides one Third of his personal Estate. If I had converted that Real Estate into Money, it would in the fifty years that have passed since, at legal interest have amounted to more I believe than I am now worth. In 1764 I married the Daughter of the richest Clergy- man in the Province as his Brother Clergymen used to say. Be this as it may he was as kind to me as a Father in Law ought to be and gave me on my Mar- riage what I thought a very handsome sum of Money besides the ordinary furniture of a Daughters House- hold. That Sum I instantly laid down in the Purchase of an Orchard and a very fine Piece of Land near my Paternal House and Homestead. This Sum in the hands of common sense and common Industry might have been employed in the rapid vicissitudes which have taken place in this Country, to produce a fortune much greater than I possess. From 1758 to 1775 seventeen years I was in Practice at the Bar. Seven years of it at the head of the Bar. In this period I am bold to say no lawyer was ever more laborious. I was concerned in all the greatest Causes and rode most of the Circuit of the Province. Though I was never so greedy of great Fees as some others, and 350 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. though our Fees in those Times were not so high as they are now, and as they were in the Revolutionary times when Rum, Sugar and Molasses, Madeira Wine and English Goods were given in Profusion to the Lawyers, yet I got money as I thought very fast, as fast as I desired. This I laid out in a House in Boston, now of great value, in Lands in my own neighbourhood in the Country and in the purchase of my brothers share of my Fathers Estate, and lent at legal simple interest on Bonds and Mortgages to private Persons. When our Continental Currency had depreciated four or five or six hundred per cent, my Debtors tendered to my wife payment of their debts. I advised her to receive them and put them into the Loan Office of the United States, where they lay sometimes dead and sometimes alive till Mr. Gallatin has paid them off, and for want of knowing what to do with them I have placed very injudiciously I fear. In 1783 my revered Father in Law died and left my wife one half of a Patrimonial Farm in Milford near Boston, which has always produced an handsome rent, and her share of his personal Estate. In 1803 my wifes Uncle Norton Quincy Esqr. died and left my wife her full proportion of his Estate with his other relations. When 1 was called to Congress in 1774 I left as full Practice as any Lawyer ever held in this State. I left Debts due to me on Books to a large amount, and many other Debts on Notes and Bonds. My friend and Agent collected what he could and lent to the Publick. I have been ten years Ambassador abroad, eight years Vice President of the United States and four years President. John Lowell in 1776 or 1777 removed from Newbury OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 351 Port to Boston, stepped into my shoes, undertook my business, engaged in the employment of my Clients; and died lately worth several hundred thousand Dol- lars : left a very handsome fortune to all his sons and Daughters : and that very Spartacus, that Leader of Rebel Slaves, that very " Rebel" who lately reproached me with being overpaid has a magnificent seat in Bos- ton, a splendid Villa in the Country and large sums in Funds, Banks, and Insurances all derived from his Father, for he never earned much if anything himself. After travelling over a great part of Europe with his Family this very Spartacus tells the world I have been overpaid. I might safely offer him all I am worth, as I believe, for one Quarter Part of his. Is not this in- solence too great for Philosophical or Christian pa- tience to bear? No. It is not, and I bear it with much indifference, whether Philosopher or Christian or not. Adieu. J. A. Near a Million Sterling passed through my hands in Amsterdam on which I never received a Farthing as Commissions or in any other way. A knowing one might have made great Profits. I have had opportu- nities of making a Fortune by Speculation in the Eng- lish Funds. I have had offers of Partnership in a Company to purchase our whole American Debt when it was at two and six pence in the Pound. I never would have any Thing to do with it: and never made a Farthing in any of these Ways. J. A. Dr. Rush. 352 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy August 28. 1811. Your Letter of the 20th., My dear Friend, has filled my Eyes with Tears, and, indurated stoick as I am, my heart with sensations unutterable by my tongue or pen. Not the feelings of Vanity, but the overwhelming sense of my own Unworthiness of such a Panegyrick from such a Friend. Like Louis the 16 I said to myself Qu'est ce, que j'ai fait pour le meriter. Have I not been employed in Mischief all my days ? Did not the American Revolution produce the French Revolution? and did not the French Revolution produce all the Calamities and Desolations to the human Race and the whole Globe ever since ? I meant well however. My conscience was clear as a Christal Glass without a scruple or a doubt. I was borne along by an irresista- ble sense of duty. God prospered our labours: and awful, dreadfull and deplorable as the Consequences have been, I cannot but hope that the Ultimate Good of the World, of the human Race, and of our beloved Country is intended and will be accomplished by it. While I was in this Reverie I handed your letter to my Brother Cranch, the Postmaster of eighty-five years of Age, an Israelite indeed, who read it with great Atten- tion and at length started up and exclaimed " I have known you sixty years and I can bear Testimony as a Witness to every Word your Friend has said in this Letter in your Favour." This compleated my humilia- tion and Confusion. Your Letter is the most serious and solemn one I ever received in my Life. It has aroused and harrowed up my soul. I know not what to say in answer to it, or to do in consequence of it. It is most certain that the end of my Life cannot be OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 353 remote. My eyes are constantly fixed upon it, accord- ing to the Precept or advice of the ancient Philosopher. And if I am not in a total delusion, I daily behold and contemplate it without dismay. If by dedicating all the rest of my days to the Compo- sition of such an address as you propose I could have any rational assurance of doing any real good to my fellow Citizens of United America, I would cheerfully lay aside all other occupations and amusements and devote myself to it. But there are difficulties and embarrassments in the Way, which to me, at present, appear insuperable. 1. "The sensibility of the Public Mind" which you anticipate at my Decease, will not be so favourable to my Memory as you seem to foresee. By the treatment I have received and continue to receive I should expect that a large Majority of all Parties would cordially rejoice to hear that my head was laid low. 2. I am surprised to read your opinion that "my In- tegrity has never been called in Question," and that " Friends and Enemies agree in believing me to be an honest man." If I am to judge by the Newspapers and Pamphlets that have been printed in America for twenty years past, I should think that both Parties believed me the meanest Villain in the World. 3. If they should not "suspect me of sinning in the Grave" they will charge me with Selfishness and Hy- pocrisy before my death, in preparing an address to move the Passions of the People, and excite them to promote my children and perhaps to make my son a King. Washington and Franklin could never do any Thing but what was imputed to pure disinterested Patriotism. I never could do any Thing but what was ascribed to Sinister Motives. 354 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 4. I agree with you in Sentiment that Religion and Virtue are the only Foundations, not only of Republi- canism and of all free Government, but of social felicity under all Governments and in all the Combinations of human Society. But if I should inculcate this doctrine in my Will, I should be charged with Hypocrisy and a desire to conciliate the good will of the Clergy towards my Family as I was charged by Dr. Priestley and his Friend Cooper and by Quakers, Baptists and I know not how many other sects, for instituting a National Fast, for even common Civility to the Clergy, and for being a Church going animal. 5. If I should inculcate those " National, Social, do- mestic and religious virtues" you recommend, I should be suspected and charged with an hypocritical, Machia- vilian, Jesuitical, Pharisaical attempt to promote a na- tional establishment of Presbyterianism in America, whereas I would as soon establish the Episcopal Church, and almost as soon the Catholic Church. 6. If I should inculcate Fidelity to the Marriage Bed, it would be said that it proceeded from Resentment to General Hamilton, and a malicious desire to hold up to Posterity his Libertinism. 7. Others would say that it is only a vain glorious ostentation of my own Continence. For among all the Errors, Follies, Failings, Vices and Crimes which have been so plentifully imputed to me, I cannot recollect a single Insinuation against me of any amorous Intrigue, or irregular or immoral connection with Woman, single or married, myself a Batcheller or a married Man. 8. If I should recommend the Sanctification of the Sabbath like a divine, or even only a regular attendance on publick Worship as a means of moral Instruction OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 355 and Social Improvement like a Phylosopher or States- man, I should be charged with vain ostentation again, and a selfish desire to revive the Remembrance of my own Punctuality in this Respect, for it is notorious enough that I have been a Church going animal for seventy six years i.e. from the Cradle; and this has been alledged as one Proof of my Hypocrisy. 9. Fifty three years ago I was fired with a Zeal, amounting to Enthusiasm against ardent spirits; the Multiplication of Taverns, Retailers, dram shops and tippling houses ; grieved to the heart to see the number of idlers, Thieves, sots and consumptive Patients made for the Phisicians in those infamous seminaries. I ap- plied to the Court of Sessions, procured a Committee of Inspection and Inquiry, reduced the number of licensed Houses &c, &c, &c. But I only acquired the Reputation of a Hypocrite and an ambitious Demagogue by it: the Number of licensed Houses was soon rein- stated, drams, grog and sotting were not diminished and remain to this day as deplorable as ever. You may as well preach to the Indians against Rum as to our People. Little Turtle petitioned me to prohibit Rum to be sold to his Nation ; for a very good reason, because he said I had lost three thousand of my Indian Children in his Nation in one year by it. Sermons, moral discourses, Phylosophical disserta- tions, medical advice are all lost upon this subject. Nothing but making the Commodity scarce and dear will have any Effect. And your Republican Friend, and I had almost said mine, Jefferson, would not per- mit Rum or Whiskey to be taxed. If I should then in my Will, my Dying Legacy, my posthumous Exhortation, call it what you will, recom- 356 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. mend heavy, prohibitory Taxes upon Spirituous Liquors, which I believe to be the only Remedy against their deleterious Qualities in society, every one of your Brother Republicans and nine tenths of the Federalists would say that I was a canting Puritan, a profound Hypocrite, setting up standards of Morality, Frugality, Economy, Temperance, Simplicity and Sobriety that I knew the age was incapable of. io. Funds and Banks. I never approved or was satisfied with our Funding System. It was founded on no consistent Principle. It was continued to enrich particular Individuals at the public expense. Our whole banking system I ever abhorred, I continue to abhor, and shall die abhorring. But I am not an ennemy to Funding Systems. They are absolutely and indis- pensably necessary in the present state of the World. An attempt to annihilate or prevent them would be as Romantic an Adventure as any in Don Quixot or in Oberon. A national Bank of deposit I believe to be wise, just, prudent, economical and necessary. But every Bank of discount, every Bank by which interest is to be paid, or Profit of any kind made by the De- ponent is downright Corruption. It is taxing the pub- lic for the benefit and profit of Individuals. It is worse than old time continental Currency, or any other Paper Money. Now sir, if I should talk in this strain after I am dead, you know the people of America would pro- nounce that I had died mad. n. My opinion is that a circulating Medium of Gold and silver only ought to be introduced and established, that a National Bank of Deposit only, with a branch in each State, should be allowed; that every Bank in the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 357 Union ought to be annihilated, and every Bank of Dis- count prohibited to all Eternity. Not one farthing of Profit should ever be allowed on any Money deposited in the Bank. Now, my Friend, if in my posthumous Sermon, Exhortation, Advice, Address or what ever you may call it, I should gravely deliver such a Doc- trine, nine tenths of Republicans as well as Federalists will think that I ought to have been consigned to your tranquillizing Chair, rather than permitted to write such extravagances. Franklin, Washington, Hamilton, and all our dis- interested Patriots and Heroes it will be said, have sanctioned Paper Money and Banks, and who is this Pedant and Bigot of a John Adams who from the ground sounds the toxin against all our best men, when every Body knows he never had any Thing in View but his private Interest from his Birth to his Death. 12. Free schools, and all Schools, Colledges, Acade- mies and Seminaries of learnino- I can recommend from o my heart; but I dare not say that a suffrage " should never be permitted to a Man, who cannot read and write." What would become of the Republic of France if the Lives, Fortunes, Charities of twenty four Millions and an half of Men who can neither read nor write, should be at the absolute disposal of five hundred thousand who can read ? 13. I am not qualified to write such an address. The style should be pure, elegant, eloquent and pathetick in the highest degree. It should be revised, corrected, oblitterated, interpolated, amended, transcribed twenty times, polished, refined, varnished, burnished. To all these employments and exercises I am a total stranger. To my sorrow I have never copied nor corrected nor 24 358 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. embellished. I understand it not. I never could write Declamations, Orations or popular Addresses. 14. If I could persuade my Friend Rush, or my Friend Idy, my Friend Trimbul or my Friend Humphrys, or perhaps my Friend Jefferson to write such a Thing for me, I know not why I might not transcribe it, as Wash- ington did so often. Borrowed eloquence if it contains as good stuff, is as good as own eloquence. 15. The example you recollect of Caesar's Will is an awful Warning. Posthumous addresses may be left by Caesar as well as Cato, Brutus or Cicero and will oftener perhaps be applauded and make deeper impressions, establish Empires easier than restore Republicks: pro- mote Tyranny sooner than Liberty. Your advice my Friend, flows from the Piety, Benevo- lence and Patriotism of your heart. I know of no Man better qualified to write such an address than yourself. If you will try your hand at it and send me the result, I will consider it maturely. I will not promise to adopt it as my own : but I may make a better use of it than of any Thing I could write. My Brother Cranch thinks you one of the best and one of the profoundest Christians. He prays me to present you his best Compliments, and although he has not the Honour nor the pleasure of a personal acquaint- ance, has the highest esteem of your character. He prays me to inclose a sermon, not for its own sake so much as for the Appendix, which he asks you to read and give him your opinion of it. Will you shew it to our Friend Wharton and get his opinion of it. I am as I ever have been and ever shall be your admiring Friend Dr. Rush. John Adams. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 359 Quincy September 12. 1811. My Friend,-Suum cuique decus Posteritas rependit, has some Truth in it and you have adduced several ex- amples of it: but it is by no means an universal Apho- rism, nor do I believe it to be generally true. You seem to think that Integrity is less envied than Talents. This Question deserves consideration. Under the Roman Emperors nothing was envied so much as Integrity or even the appearance or suspicion of In- tegrity, " Ob virtutis certissimum exitium." The vote to banish Aristides, because he was trumpeted for his Justice, I will not alledge in my favour ; because I think with his Fellow Citizens, that, tho a just Man in the main, he was not celebrated for his real Integrity so much as for the most unjust action of his life, in de- stroying the ballance of the Constitution, and giving that Preponderance to the Poor over the rich which soon produced the ruin of the Athenian Common- wealth. Aristides destroyed the ballance of Solon, and gave uncontrollable power to the Plebeians who immedi- ately cryed out "Justice! Justice! Huzza for Aris- tides the Just." You, Rush! would not have borne this prostitution of the word Justice better than the Athenian did. To be sure honest Men have been satyrized, ridiculed, calumniated, belied. Sometimes the Lies have stuck, sometimes not. Julius Caesar, as corrupt a Rascal as Sallust, and as exquisite a writer, wrote Anticatones, i.e. Libels against Cato. Who has destroyed these villainous effusions of allarmed ambition? Not the Friends of Liberty surely ; they never had the power. It must have been Roman Tyrants, heathen or Christian, 360 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ecclesiastical or temporal. I would consent that Cal- lender Paine and Hamilton should write ten times as much Billingsgate against me as they have done, if by this Condition I could procure a Copy of Caesars Anti- catones. We have a beautiful specimen of your Doctrine in Dion Cassius. He flourished under the most Tyrannical of the Emperors by whom he was promoted to great Power and Dignities from the time of the Antonines to that of Alexander Severus. Dion calls Cicero's Father a Fuller, who nevertheless got his Living by dressing other Mens vines and olives; that Cicero was born and bred amidst the scourings of old Cloaths, and the Filth of Dunghills ; that he was master of no liberal science, nor ever did a single Thing in his Life worthy of a great Man or an Orator: that he prostituted his Wife ; trained up his son in drunkenness ; committed Incest with his Daughter; lived in Adultery with Cerellia, whom he owns at the same time to be seventy years old. What more beautiful calumny against me can you find in Ned Church, Phillip Freneau, Andrew Brown, Peter Markoe, Calender, Duane, Cheetham, Hamilton, or the Boston Chronicle, Repertory, Gazette or Continental ? My Friend and Priest, Mr. Wibert, an admirer of Whitefield once in Company with him observed " Mr. Whitefield ! You have been abused in Pamphlets and Journals a great while, and they still continue to insult you every day ; does it not often affect your spirits ?" "Oh no," said Whitefield, "if they knew how much pleasure they give me they would not do it." Still I insist upon it, let Whitefield say what he will, it is not a pleasant Thing to be told every day in a Newspaper that one is a Rascal, a Scoundrel, a Lyar, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 361 a Villain, a Thief, a Robber, a Traytor, an Apostate; even although we know and the world in general knows that those who call us so are really what they call us. It would be very easy my Friend to compose an ad- dress which should contain nothing but obvious Truths that all Men would at once approve. Such was Wash- ingtons. Religion, Morality, Union, Constitution. Who even among the Atheists, the despisers and abhorrers of the Constitution, the Disorganizers and Promoters of a Northern Confederacy, would dare publickly to attack such Topics? What good has Washingtons address done ? Both parties quote it as an oracle. But neither party cares one farthing about it. With the knowing ones of both Parties it is known to have no Weight but as Argumentum ad hominem to the igno- rant of both sides. Such an address would not be worth my while. In all my publick writings for more than forty years I have sufficiently explained my senti- ments and sufficiently warned my Countrymen against the dangers of American Liberty, long enough before the pretty Prattler Ames wrote his Jeremiads. I could sum up and abridge all I have written; but this would comprehend everything relative to Forms of Govern- ment, which you expressly prohibit me from touching. In myopinion every Thing depends on the form of Govern- ment. Without this you may declaim on Religion, Mo- rality, Union, Constitution to all Eternity to no purpose. Mr. Richardson of S. C. was much esteemed here by all Parties. Whoever gave him the Information that my Property was worth between 80,000 and an 100,000 dollars infected his head with much exaggeration. My Estate is chiefly in Lands in this town of Quincy; I have none anywhere else excepting a bit or two of 362 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Cedar Swamp in Braintree and Randolph the whole of which would not sell for five hundred dollars. I have two farms in Quincy : the best would not sell at Vendue for twenty thousand Dollars; the other on which I live, would not sell for more than Ten. My Personal Estate is partly in a Middlesex Canal, which has never produced one farthing of Rent, but a contin- ued Augmentation of Expense ; and partly in a New Market which is not likely to produce any Profit soon, if ever. My real estate has never produced two Per Cent on the estimate I have given you. In short I have never added one farthing to my Property for ten years; but on the Contrary have been obliged to make Inroads on my little Capital. The foregoing Computations have all been made in the present depreciated state of the value of Bank Bills, the most fraudulent engines that ever were in- vented by private Avarice to violate the Tenth Com- mandment. What were Woods half pence? Oh, that we had a Dean Swift, or even a Thomas Hutchinson ! In this depreciated Currency if you compute my Fortune at fifty thousand dollars, you will lay it as high as the Truth will bear. And my Income from it, is far short of the Legal Interest of that sum. is forty six. She has possessed as Steady Firmness of Mind and Body through her whole life as any woman I ever knew. She is every way worthy of her Mother. Adversity of which she has had a large share has never moved her more than Prosperity. But she is now threatened with a Misfortune the prospect of which casts a Melancholy edoom over my whole Family and all her Friends. Adieu. J. A. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 363 Quincy October 13. 1811. Dear Rush,- Sobrius Esto ! Recollect your own Non Nobis ! Your Letter of the 20th. of September I communi- cated to Mrs. Adams as you advised. Mrs. Adams to her daughter. After a reasonable time for Deliberation and Reflection the Heroine determined. The Mother and the Daughter went to Boston and consulted Dr. Warren Junior, Dr. Welsh, Dr. Warren Junior having previously consulted Dr. Tufts and Dr. Holbrook. The Physicians and Surgeons all unanimously pro- nounced Dr. Rush's opinion and advice to be exactly and perfectly in all Points agreeable to their own, and the Plan was laid and the Catastrophy resolved. On Tuesday the eighth of October, a day memorable in my little Annals, the operation was performed in Presence of the two Dr. Warrens, Dr. Welsh and Dr. Holbrook by Dr. Warren Senior. The operation was twenty five Minutes in performing, and the dressing an hour longer. o The surgeons all agree that in no Instance did they ever witness a Patient of more Intrepidity than she ex- hibited through the whole transaction. They all affirm that the morbid substance is totally eradicated and nothing left but Flesh perfectly sound. They all agree that the Probability of compleat and ultimate success is as great as in any instance that has fallen under their experience. Yesterday October 12 the surgeons met again and dressed the wound and unanimously declare it in as good a state as they could expect. 364 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Had not your Letter overcome all her Scruples and Timidity, I believe she would have returned before now to Smiths Valley, which would have been to her The Valley of Jehosaphat. Oh ! that a vaccine Inoculation could be discovered for this opprobrium of Phylosophy and Medicine, The Cancer, This Physical disgrace of human Nature! Neither you nor I have much superstition in our Natures or our Creeds. But neither of us can refuse to acknowledge a Providence in this Instance. She ac- cidentally as the World says read your Book wrote you a letter, received your answer altered her plan, post- poned her Journey home, and as I sincerely hope and devoutly pray saved her life. I rejoice however still with trembling. I know the uncertainty that still remains, and that our only ultimate Resource is Resignation. We are all very sensible of our obligation to you and pray you to accept our cordial Thanks. Dr. Rush. John Adams. Dear Sir,-Shall I congratulate or condole with you on the appointment of your son to be Comptroller of the Treasury? You will lose the delightful Comfort of his daily society and that of his Lady and their prat- tling little ones, which I know by experience to be in old age among the sweetest enjoyments of Life, provided always that it be not indulged to excess. I should have thought too that his office of Attorney General and his practice at the Bar would have not Quincy Deer. 4. 1811. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 365 only given him better Profits but opened to him better Prospects. I should have thought too that he had too much Genius, Imagination and Taste to be able to reconcile himself to a life of such painful drudgery as casting accounts, examining vouchers, etc. I presume nevertheless that he can reconcile himself to it; and there are many advantages in being near the Fountain. Mr. Gallatin has been so long in that labo- rious situation that he probably will not be content to hold it many years. I wish Mr. Rush may be his suc- cessor. In either office he will have an opportunity of acquiring a general knowledge of Public affairs and become qualified for any employment, civil, political, judiciary or diplomatical at home or abroad. My best wishes attend him wherever he is. We have seen advertised in the Aurora and several other Southern Papers Dr. Franklins works and es- pecially his Journal in France: and although these advertisements have been continued and repeated for years, no Man here has ever seen or heard of the Book. Pray tell me what this means ? I am told too that Colonel Duane has announced his Intention to take me in hand for what I have published concerning Dr. Franklin. He is welcome. I have pub- lished my proofs as well as Complaints. Let the world judge. I have not been such a disinterested Patriot as to have Five hundred and thirty thousand dollars to assist me in my defence. I am as ever yours John Adams. Dr. Rush. 366 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy December 19. 1811. Dear Sir,-When I was a Boy, not ten years old, I heard Smith Richard Thayer, a great Authority, say "When Duty and Interest go together, they make Staving Work." By your own shewing it was Richards Duty to be overuled or ruled over by his Wife : and by my shew- ing I will make it appear to be his Interest. He will soon be Secretary of the Treasury, or he may be a Judge of the Supreme Court, or an Ambas- sador abroad when he pleases : or perhaps Vice Presi- dent or President. Pensilvania has not had her share, and Virginia a fourfold Proportion of American Hon- ours. Virginia must now court Pensilvania and New York too, or these two last will soon join New Eng- land and play the Mischief with the first. The Reason why Pensilvania had not her share in the first twelve years, was that Pensilvania appeared, according to Farmers Daemonology, to be seized by the Spirit which entered into the swine and rushed down steep into the Sea. Mifflin, McKean, Dallas, all of you indeed, seemed to have adopted what The great Randolph calls " The infernal Principles of French Fraternization." They were for going to War with England, and forming a close alliance with Robespierre and his forerunners and after followers. I thought this Project no better than making a League with the Devil. I have wondered that Jefferson did not promote Pensilvanians. I am glad Madison begins to think of it. I know how it is. It is so sweet, fatigued at Night with Study and Business, to sit down and chat with OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 367 Consort and Daughters and Son Richard and his fas- cinating wife that you cannot bear to think of losing any part of the Entertainment. Just so have I fretted sev- eral times when they have taken away from me my Com- fort. But Non Nobis, Non nobis Solis nati Sumus. Mrs. Smith's Breast is "perfectly and radically healed." Her arm is weak and stiff, but the Surgeons say it will be perfectly restored by time. Your mute Art is far preferable to the loquacious ones. What becomes of all the great Talkers ? What happened to Cicero, Demosthenes, Burk, Fox, Pitt, Otis, Patrick Henry, R. H. Lee, Bayard, Ames, Dex- ter, Harper, and a thousand others? I sometimes think that orators are unfit for Judges or Legislative or Executive offices; any Thing that requires cool deliberation and deep Judgment. A mute Franklin or a mute Washington or even a mute Jefferson is not to be found among all our orators; at least in success and popular Importance. What will become, too, of our two great reigning orators, Randolph and Quincy ? They had better hold their Tongues. The Winds begin to rustle, the Clouds gather, it grows dark: will these airy Forces rear up the ocean to a foaming Fury? A Spirit seems to be rising; a Spirit of Contrition and Shame at our long Apathy and Lethargy; a Spirit of Resentment of Injuries; a Spirit of Indignation at Insolence; and what to me is very remarkable, a Spirit of greater Unanimity than I have ever witnessed in this country for fifty years. What say you to your Friend? Dr. Rush. John Adams. 368 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy January 8th. 1812. My worthy Friend,-I have recd. your favour of the 26th. of Deer. You mention Cobbet. Have you read Mr. Randolphs speech? Was there any Thing in Cobbets writings more envious than that speech? Now I assure you upon my honour and the Faith of the Friendship between us, that I never saw the face of that Cobbet; that I should not know him if I met him in my Porridge Dish; that I never wrote one word in his Paper and had no more connection with him than with Phillip Freneau or Colonel Duane. What shall I say of Mr. Randolph? After a dozen years he cannot forget the foolish Figure he made, when after insulting the whole Army by calling them Raggamuffins, he thought himself insulted by some officers of the Army at the Theatre and instead of calling them to account according to his professed Principles, complained like a Baby to me of a Breach of the Priviledges of the House. I sent the Complaint to the House whose sole Right it was to vindicate its Priviledges, and got the laugh of the Universe upon him. This, such a Soul as his can never forgive. Pray tell me what is the Republicanism of this Mr. Randolph ? Has he any one Principle of Legislation or Government or of foreign Relations ? I say his Republicanism is any Thing, every Thing and Nothing. I do not flap this Bug and many others, not because I fear their stings, but be- cause I know that when crushed their odour is more nauseous than their stings can be painful. Another Thing Dr. Rush! You know it was circu- lated and believed throughout the City of Philadelphia, that I had set up and established John Fenns and his 369 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. United States Gazette ; to introduce Monarchy. I say you know it, because you told me so yourself, and at the same time said that Freneaus National Gazette was set up to oppose the Vice President and his United States Gazette. Now I declare to you I never knew any Thing of Freneau till I found him established at New York and his Paper established ; that I never contributed a Farthing to his establishment or support, and that I never wrote a line in his Paper but the Discourses on Davila. You know too the Time when there was not a Quaker or Proprietary Partisan in Pensilvania who would not gladly have seen my neck in a Halter and me kicking in the air as Col. Harrisons Imagination represented himself and Mr. Gerry; and that long before the Declaration of Independence, and merely because I was suspected of having Independence in view as a last resort. You know too that I have lived in an enemies coun- try in France, in Holland and in England, as well as in Boston, Massachusetts and throughout the Union, and am so to this day. What of all this? Such are the Terms upon which an honest Man and real Friend to his Country must live in times such as these we have been destined to witness. And what is worse than all, we must leave these Prejudices and Enmities to our Children as their Inheritance. From the year 1761, now more than Fifty years, I have constantly lived in an enemies Country. And that without having one Personal enemy in the World, that I know of. I do not con- sider little Flirts and Spatts and Miffs and Piques for- 370 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. gotten by me in a Moment as enmities, tho others may have remembered them longer. Now I hope I have prepared the way in some meas- ure, for giving you my opinion of your enemys Coun- try, and I humbly hope in some tho a less degree I fear, of my own. In my opinion there is not in Philadel- phia a single Citizen more universally esteemed and beloved by his Fellow Citizens than Dr. Benjamin Rush. There is not a man in Pensilvania more es- teemed by the whole State. I know not a man in America more esteemed by the nation. There is not a Citizen of this Union, more esteemed throughout the litterary, Scientifical, and Moral World in Europe, Asia and Africa. Such in my opinion is the enemies Coun- try and enemies World in which you live and will die. There is nevertheless not a Tory and scarcely a Whig in America but talks about Dr. Rush and will tell twenty absurd and ridiculous stories about him as well as John Adams. I will give you one example in perfect Con- fidence. Let the secret be as close as the grave. A Gentleman told me lately " That General Washington was a Hypocrite." A hypocrite ! What do you mean ? " He was a Hypocrite"-and mentioned several things, but "one instance alone was sufficient proof of his Hy- pocrisy." What is that? " He appointed Dr. Rush to a lucrative and respectable office, that of Treasurer of the Mint." And what proof of Hypocrisy was that? " Why I know that he thought Dr. Rush a villain; and believing him to be so, it was Hypocrisy to appoint him to such an office of Trust." And how do you know that he thought so ill of Dr. Rush ? Such a gentleman whom he named but I will not, " the most intimate Friend of Gen. Washington, told me that he had heard OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 371 him say, that he had been a good deal in the world and seen many bad Men, but Dr. Rush was the most black hearted scoundrel he had ever known." This is horrid said I, both upon Washington and Rush ; but the best of it is that Washington while President never ap- pointed Rush to any thing. It was myself who ap- pointed Rush Treasurer of the Mint, and so far from repenting of it, or thinking it a Proof of Hypocrisy, I thought Dr. Rush one of the best Men in the World, and his appointment one of the best that had been made. He acknowledged, that if this was so, he had been mistaken in the author of Rush's appointment, but he was not so in the account he had given of Wash- ington's speech to his Friend. Your Posterity and mine, I doubt not my Friend, will be teased and vexed with a Million of such stories concerning us, when we shall be no more. In the struggles and Competitions of fifty or sixty years in times that taxed Mens Hearts and Brains and Spinal Marrow it could not be otherwise. The Petts of Friends no less than the hatred of enemies, could not fail to produce a great deal of such envenomed Froth. You forgot to mention one of your earliest offences, that was your opposition to Negro Slavery. As to any whippings you have got for your rude Irreverence to Greek and Latin, I pitty you not. You have deserved them all and more. I have not a word to say in Justification, Excuse or Apology for you. In that you tore the coat worse than Martin or Jack in the Tale of a Tub. Let me hear no more of your Jeremiads. Let us sing O be joyful all the rest of our Lives. Read Dr. Barrow, and Rejoice always for all Things, and again I say rejoice. 372 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Rejoice in the Promotion of your Son: tho it costs you the Company of his enchanting Wife as well as of her enchanting Husband. He is in the Road of Honour and Power and will do a great deal of good. Pensilvania cannot get rid of Mr. Gallatin. She created and preserved and supported him and made him what he is. By her stupid union with the Southern States she has experienced their Gratitude. As long as she supports Virginia in monopolizing the great offices she will be treated as she deserves. Never was there two such Dupes as Pensilvania and New York have been. They have followed their blind guides till they have annihilated their own commerce and Navigation with that of the Union, and paralized the Agriculture of all. I am tired with writing but shall never be weary of assuring you and yours of my esteem and affection. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy March 19. 1812. Dear Sir,-The greatest part of the History in your last Letter was well known to me, and I could write you six sheets for your three, full of Anecdotes of a similar complexion. I wanted no satisfaction. If I had, your Letter would have given it. The great Character was a Character of Convention. His first appointment was a magnanimous sacrifice of the North to the South; to the base Jealousy, sordid Envy, and ignorant Prejudices of the Southern and Middle States, against New England. I know what I say, and I will not tremble like your old Friend at the danger of " giving offence." Mr. Widgery, previous to his return home from our OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 373 Legislature waited on our Governor Sullivan, pour prendre conge. The Governor had heard from some Tatler of a light speech concerning himself, and recd. his visitor coldly. W. felt it and discovered some sen- sibility of it. S. irritated, said " I set little value on these visits of Ceremony from Men who set so little value upon me in other Companies." W. raised his head, and with great dignity said " Sir ! Who made you Governor?" An explanation ensued and a Recon- ciliation. I mentioned a Character of Convention. There was a time when Northern, Middle and Southern States- men, and Northern, Middle and Southern Officers of the Army, expressly agreed to blow the Trumpet of Panegyrick in concert: to cover and dissemble all Faults and Errors: to represent every defeat as a Vic- tory, and every Retreat as an Advancement: to make that Character popular and fashionable, with all Parties in all places and with all persons, as a Centre of Union, as the Central Stone in the Geometrical Arch. There you have the revelation of the whole Mystery. Something of the same kind has occurred in France and has produced a Napoleon and his Empire. And, my Friend, something hereafter may produce similar conventions to cry up a Burr, a Hamilton, an Arnold or a Caesar, Julius or Borgia. And on such foundations have been erected Mahomet, Zingis Tamerlane Kouli Alexander and all the other great Conquerors this world has produced. Pray have you not often heard the Honorable Timo- thy Pickering speak of the Great Character ? I have. And at various Periods of time from 1791 when I lived in Mrs. Keppele's house at the Corner of Arch Street 25 374 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. and fourth street, to 1797 after I was chosen Presi- dent. I lament, my dear Friend, that you were not in Con- gress in 1774 and 1775. A thousand things happened there in those years that no Man now living knows but myself. Mr. Gerry, Mr. Lovel was not there. Gerry, not till 1776. Lovel not till 1777. 1774 was the most important and the most difficult year of all. We were about one third Tories, one third timid, and one third true Blue. We had a code of Fundamental Laws to prepare for a whole Continent of incongruous Colonies. It was done; and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 was no more than a repetition of the Principles, the Rights and Wrongs asserted and adopted in 1774. Ought not your Philosophical Society to institute an Inquiry into the Truth of the terrible accounts of Earth- quakes at the Southward and Westward. I suspect something very wicked at the bottom of most of those stories that falsis terroribus implent our good Ladies and innocent Children. Monticello owes a Letter to Maremont, or Merry Mount, or Mount Wollaston, for by all these names the Place has been called. If you have educated or suffered to be brought up your Family in Idolatry you ought to read to them that Chapter in the Old Testament which contains Moses's tremendous Curses against Idolatry. If I were to write this Letter over again I could make it methodical and correct the grammar, without sending it to Petersburg. I am as ever yours Dr. Rush. John Adams. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 375 Quincy April 22. 1812. My dear Friend,-Omnicient Jackson said to me at his own Table and repeated it at mine in London, that Chatham flattered the vanity of the Nation and gratified their Passion for War, but that he was a pernicious Minister. David Hartley said to me often ; [it was a favorite observation with him] that Chatham was a national Minister but not a wise Minister. So far I am out of your debt. I have given you a Jackson and a Hartley for your Sanbridge, two for one. Nay I have repaid you fourfold ; for either of mine was worth two of yours; for in very truth I have no veneration for Sanbridge or his Sister. With Madam Graham and her Husband I was well acquainted. I have read her History, though Johnson had not, and esteem it at least as much as " Taxation no Tyranny." The bellowing Bulls and roaring Cows of Faction .deserve an equal estimation. But mark the Morals and Religion and Politicks of our own dearly beloved Country. Madam Graham came to America and was worse than neglected: Madam Hayley alias Madam Jeffrey came here and was more than caressed. Upon my honor, my Heart would prefer the latter. My understanding would be in doubt: quite a Pyrrhonist in the morals, Politicks and Religion of the Question between the two. Who ever called in question the Military Talents of Alexander, Caesar, Zingis, Tamerlane, Mahomet, Crom- well, Marlborough ? Had these no Friends ? Bonaparte, my Friend Rush, has as many Friends as either of them. Aye, and more than Amherst or Wolfe. Death is the great Friend Maker. Had Wolfe lived and Amherst died, Amherst would have been enrolled among 376 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Patriots, Heroes, Saints ; and Wolfe would have been goldstick charged with selling all the Commissions in the Army. Had Socrates not died by Poison he would never have been more than Zeno, Epicurus, Pythagoras or Heraclitus or Democritus. Warren or Montgomery would have been no more than Green, Mifflin or Knox. Warren however ought to have been more, for he was more than all of them. Louis 14th. was blackened by the English more than Napoleon is, but in Germany he was thought to be a Saviour, a Friend of Liberty and a Protector of the Rights of the Princes and Electors against the Ambi- tion, Avarice and Tyranny of the Emperor and the House of Austria. In Italy he was thought to be a Friend of Liberty and a Protector against the Pope, the Emperor, the King of Spain and the grand Senior. Napoleon does no more than tread in his steps. He is treated in the-same manner by the English; and considered in the same Light in Germany and Italy; and in Spain too. Call him what you will, blacken him with all the Names and Epithets of Infamy if you please, I will neither quarrel, contradict or dispute. But still I will say he has been employed as an Instru- ment to defend France from the meditated Partition of Pilnits, from several Coalitions of all the great Powers of Europe to destroy France, Christendom from the Intollerance of Rome, and the human Race from that Inundation of bloody Jacobinical Democracy which was overwhelming all Liberty, Property, Religion and Mo- rality among Men. Our dear Countrymen, " the most enlightened People upon Earth" you know, think themselves Masters of the Drama of Europe and its Actors and Actresses. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 377 Good souls ! They are as ignorant as Fisher Ames. How that warbling Bob O'Lincoln affirms and denies, applauds and denounces upon subjects of which he knows no more than the Master of his Piggery! Nor than one of his old apple trees that he had sense enough to know would not bear transplanting from Dedham to Cambridge Common. Washington had Friends, real Friends: so had Cromwell, and so has Napoleon, and so had Louis 14th. Which of the four had most hypocritical Friends, which most political Friends, I pretend not to conjecture, That Washington was not a schollar is certain. That he was too illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station and reputation is equally past dispute. He had derived little Knowledge from Reading, none from Travel, except in the United States, and excepting one Trip in his youth to one of the West India Islands and directly back again. From Conversation in publick and private, he had improved considerably and by Re- flection in his Closet, a good deal. He was indeed a thoughtful Man. The most experienced and scientific Officers about him, Lee, Gates, Steuben, Conway, etc, thought little of him : some of them despised him too much. Green, Knox, Clinton, without thinking highly of him except for his honesty, were his sworn and invariable Friends. Of all his Aids and Secretaries, David Humphreys alone has been discreet enough to let no Levity escape him. Never Poet was truer to his Patron. Mifflin, one of his Generals, Hamilton Burr have been very indiscreet, Pickering, his Quarter Master, has at times been outragious. Now I will give you a little true History. 378 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. In the year 1791 when I lived in Mrs. Keppele's house, at the corner of Arch street and fourth street in Philadelphia, Colonel Pickering made me a visit, and finding me alone, spent a long evening with me. We had a multitude of conversation. I had then lately purchased Matthew Cary's American Museum, the Ninth Volume of which then lay upon my table. Colo- nel Pickering observing the book said he was acquainted with the Work and particularly with that Volume of it: and there was a Letter in it that he was extremely sorry to see there. I asked what Letter is that ? C. Pickering answered, it is a Letter from General Wash- ington. I said I had read it and attended to it. You my Friend Rush, by looking into the 282nd. page of that 9th. volume will find a letter from George Wash- ington dated Mount Vernon July 31st. 1788. Col. Pickering said he was extremely sorry to see that Letter in print. I asked him why ? What do you see amiss in it ? What harm will it do ? Col. Pickering said it will injure General Washington's Character. How will it injure him? Stratagems are lawful in War. Colonel Pickering answered me, it will hurt his moral Character. He has been generally thought to be honest and I own I thought his morals were good, but that Letter is false and I know it to be so. I knew him to be vain and weak and ignorant, but I thought he was well meaning: but that Letter is a Lye and I know it to be so. I objected and queried. Pickering explained and descended to particulars. He said it was false in Washington to pretend that he had medi- tated beforehand to deceive the Ennemy, and to that end to deceive the officers and soldiers of his own Army : that he had seriously meditated an attack upon OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 379 New York for near a twelve month and had made preparations at an immense expense for that purpose. Washington never had a thought of marching to the Southward, till the Count de Grasses Fleet appeared upon the Coast. He knew it, and Washington knew it, consequently that Letter was a great disgrace. As I had never before heard Washingtons Veracity as- sailed, I was uneasy and argued and queried with him. But Pickering persisted, repeated, and urged Facts and orders which I knew nothing of, and could not answer. But he dwelt with most delight on Washing- ton's Ignorance, Weakness and Vanity. He was so Ignorant that he had never read any Thing, even on military affairs : he could not write a sentence of Gram- mar, nor spell his words, &c., &c., &c. To this I ob- jected. I had been in Congress with Washington in 1774 and in May and part of June 1775 and had heard and read all his Letters to Congress in 1775, 1776, 1777, and had formed a very different opinion of his litterary Talent. His Letters were well written and well spelled, Pickering replied " he did not write them; he only copied them." Who did write them? " His Secretaries and Aids," and I think he mentioned Reed, Harrison and Tilghman. Pickering had come from Wioming to solicit employ- ment, as I suppose. He obtained the Post Office, the Secretaryship of War and of State under Washington, who could not spell or write Grammar but would lie. General Knox, who was his Friend, told me he had a dreadfull task, that was his Phrase, to get Washington and Hamilton to consent to his appointment to any Thing. Pickering in his Letter to Governor Sullivan acknowledges that Washington knew him, and that he 380 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. told him when he made him Secretary of State that he had offered the Place to others whom he mentioned to Pickering but Pickering did not mention to the Publick. [I conjecture Chancellor Livingstone and Mr. Madison were the persons.] Pickering however drudged on, as Postmaster and as Secretary under a President who could not spell, nor write Grammar, but yet would lie, till 1797 when 1 was chosen P. of U. S. I had never had much intercourse with any of the Secretaries of Departments: but now it became my duty to look into them. Washington had appointed them and I knewr it would turn the world up- side down if I removed any one of them. I had then no particular objection against any of them. I called at the Treasury and conversed with Walcott. I called at the office of State and conversed with Pickering. I was now elected and Washington, upon the Point of his Departure from Philadelphia. Pickering to my utter astonishment began to talk about Washington in the same strain as in Mrs. Keppeles house, six or seven years before. He said "Washington was so ex- tremely illiterate ! He could not write a sentence with- out mispelling some word ; nor three parragraphs with- out false grammar." I was displeased at this ill nature, and astonished that after so many years service under Washington he should have retained the same malev- olence and Contempt which he had indulged so fool- ishly in my presence six or seven years before. I took no other notice of his Indiscretion, however than to say, with the utmost mildness " Col. Pickering you seem to me to be too much prejudiced. Washington certainly was not so extremely illiterate as you represent him : his Letters and publick performances shew him quite other- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 381 wise. Pickering replied very sharply "He did not write them." I asked who did ? Fie answered " His Aids and Secretaries ; in the Army his Secretaries and aids wrote his Letters ; the best of them were written by Colonel Harrison etc." I said from all the conver- sations I had held with him from the year 1774, he appeared to me to have a good deal of Information. " Information 1" said Pickering " he had never read any Thing; not even on the Military Art; he told me he had never read any Thing but [I forget what, probably Sim's Military Guide] He never had read Muller." This is the Colonel Pickering, who is now holding himself up, as the Friend and Admirer and Lover of Washington ; a Member of the Washington benevolent Societies, affiliated with Societies under the same ap- pellation, and for the same purposes in Canada. This is the same Colonel Pickering who has opened his Tyger Jaws upon me in the Newspapers, and represented me to the Universe as having sacrificed him to a corrupt bargain with Samuel and Robert Smith. I do not stand on equal ground with Mr. Pickering. A President of U. S. cannot vindicate himself setting a dangerous example. I have written however to the Smiths, and inclose the Correspondence. Give me your advice. Shall I meet this rancorous Caitiff in the Newspapers? Return to me the Correspondence with the Smiths by the Post. Adieu. John Adams. Dr. Rush. 382 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Friend of 1774,-When I sat down to write to you yesterday I really intended to write a sober Letter: but fell insensibly into my habitual playful strain. I will now try the experiment, whether I can write a serious Letter to you without anything sportive or ex- travagant in it. I cannot see with you that a declaration of War against France as well as England would probably unite us. On the contrary it appears to me it would divide us ; essentially and fundamentally divide us ; and end in a short time in a final separation of the States and a civil War. Instead of filling the loan, it would put a stop to it. Instead of either Nations feeling our importance it would convince both that they can do without us. It would alienate our Navigation and Sea- men and make them all british ships and british sub- jects. In such a case we could trade with no part of the world. Our Navigation and Commerce would be annihilated, which would drive the whole Continent, but especially the Northern half of the Nation to despera- ation. For they cannot, they will not and they ought not to bear it or submit to it. We want no " reaction in do- mestic manufactures or internal commerce" to " make us a great and independent People." We are both already, and want nothing to make it appear to all the World, but common sense and common courage. We deceive ourselves if we imagine that our People will become sedentary and turn manufacturers. Where lands are so plenty and so cheap mankind will never confine themselves to close rooms, hot fires, and damp Cellars to throw a Shuttle or swing a hammer. Besides, if Quincy May 14. 1812. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 383 you once stop the exportation of Corn and Flour, there would be so little raised, that we should often suffer a famine for bread. You ask my opinion whether a declaration of War against England last fall, would not have prevented so much clamour against embargoes, loans and taxes? My answer is ready. There would in that case have been no embargo to excite a clamor; and loans and taxes would have excited none at all. Especially if Congress had voted a few ships, Frigates I mean for a beginning of a Navy. You cannot conceive what rage and horror was flashed through New England and New York by the embargo and the vote against a few additional Frigates. They flew like streaks of lightning and hurled Gerry from his Chair, and revolutionised the whole State of New York and the whole representation of Massachu- setts. Had Congress only voted six additional Frigates and the embargo kept back one week, Gerry would have been Governor. These two egregious blunders of our national Government produced an absolute tornado. The Fury of the Whirlwind was irresistable. It blowed down Palaces and tore up aged Oaks by the roots. My confidence in the Integrity of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, in their love of their Country, and the sincerity of their desires to serve its interests and pro- mote its prosperity, is still entire. Of their Genius, talents, learning, Industry, I am fully convinced, as all the rest of the World is. But either they are shallow statesmen or I am a natural Fool. There is no other alternative or Dilemma. Mr. Madison has more cor- rect Ideas ; but as he has been borne up under the wing of Mr. Jefferson he has been always shackled with 384 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Mr. Jeffersons visions and Prejudices. But, my Friend, as this is a serious Letter, I must soberly tell you that the Tories of New York and Boston are now retaliating upon Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison their own policy. I appeal to your conscience, and I say that you know that Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, John Taylor, John Langdon, Frederick and Peter Muhlenburg, Tenche Coxe, Pierce Butler, Thomas McKean and others, without number and without Name and in New York Clintons, Livingston, Gates, Burr, &c, &c, &c, sett themselves deliberately to spread discontent among the People by which were raised Mobs, Riots, Routs, Un- lawful Assemblies, Seditions and Insurrections against me as they had done against Washington before. This was effected by such a Series of Libels as never appeared in America before. The Tories of New York and Boston for twelve years past have been retaliating upon them their own Policy. An uninterrupted Series of Libels for eleven years to be sure have been poured from the Press against Jefferson and Madison, and at last Rebellion or Quasi Rebellion has been produced. An uninterrupted Series of Libels in like manner had been vomited forth against Washington and Adams during the first twelve years of the national Government and produced Riots, Routs, unlawful Assemblies, Seditions and quasi Rebel- lions, if not real Rebellions against them. Compare in old times Freneau, Church, Brown, Beache Duane, Paine, Callender, &c, &c, with the Boston Gazette Repertory Centinel, Palladium, Colmans Paper at New York &c, &c, &c, and say whether the Motives and the means have not been equally honest or equally diabolical on both sides. I look upon Cabot Parsons, Chew and Willing, Jefferson OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 385 and Madison, Hutchinson Oliver and Sewall in the same light, equally honest, equally able, equally ambitious, and equally hurried away by their Passions and Prejudices. The Republican Party are now split into four or five Factions, exactly as the Federal Party was in 1799, and by the same causes and the same means. The Dis- satisfaction is universal as it was then. I know you have never read my Defence and my Davila. If you had you would see that it is always so. When a party grows strong and feels its power, it becomes intoxicated, grows presumptuous and extravagant, and breaks to pieces. There is not now one Man upon the Continent satisfied with the Conduct of public affairs, nor was there one in 1799. What will set us agoing again for twelve years to come? [For it seems it must be a game of Leapfrog. Once in twelve years the opposi- tion must skip over the Back of the Administration.] Will it be Fate? Will it be chance? No: Neither. But it must be Providence, for there is no Man, no Party capable of it. Who will be President? Mr. Madison? Mr. Jay? Mr. Marshall? Chancellor Livingston ? Col. Pinkney? Mr. Clay? or Who ? Mr. Madison I believe upon the whole : but if he does not repeal his embargo and Non Importations, he will have an angry stormy time, and if he does not set in earnest about raising a Navy, he will not live out half of his four years in office. This is a sober Letter, by which an honest Man may conscientiously die. Witness Dr. Rush. John Adams. 386 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Friend of 1774 and 1812,-I am such a miser that I cannot suffer a Letter of yours to remain a day unan- swered, because my answer procures me an Interest of eight per cent a month. I should have said such a shaver for that is now the technical term and signifies more than miser. I shall mind no order. You hope the new President, if there should be one, will send back your son, and I hope he will call home mine. We had flattered our- selves with hopes that we should see him in the Fall, but this morning a Letter of the 4th. of March informs us that he expects to remain another Winter in the north, news which pierced his mothers heart and pro- duced a pathetic exclamation that tortured mine beyond all expression I shall see him no more." Gracious Heaven ! avert the omen and defeat the Prophecy! If New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pensilvania I mean, become disaffected, Maryland will follow ; for in that State the ballance at the last Election were very nearly on an equipoise. The Government must all come then from beyond the Potomac. How much Wisdom and how much energy will there be in such a Government ? I know so little of the World, that, far from knowing the high standing of Stephen Girard as a Democrat, I am not certain I ever heard his name. Is he a French- man ? a relation of the quondam Minister from France? The thousand Houses in Philadelphia will utter groans in the night and all day long from their empty walls against the late and present administrations of the Government. How far they will be heard you know best. Quincy May 26. 1812. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 387 Men are at War with each other, and against all living Creatures. Beasts, Birds, Fishes and Insects are at War with each other and with all other species. It is a militant state and a militant Planet. All animals take more pleasure in fighting than in eating. The Pleasures of existence are not diminished by it. Since it is the destiny of our Globe and our Rank in the Universe why should a Philosopher repine? Storms, Earthquakes, Famines, Pestilences, Georges, Napoleons are but light afflictions and only for a moment. There is Philosophy for you ! And the only Philosophy that can make Men happy or can keep them so. Nil admi- rari prope res est una, Numi Solaque quae possit facere et servare beatum. There's philosophical Poetry for you; which every schoolboy knows and believes as much as you or I. " Colonel Duane it seems was mistaken, and I am very sorry for it. You and I respect and esteem and love Langdon ; but we both know that he is no com- parison to Gerry in Talents, Education or Information. No Man exceeds Gerry in attachment to the Constitu- tion or Administration. No Man has more ardor for supporting the Independence and Rights of his Coun- try. No Man understands better the controversies in which we are involved with France and England, and no Man presides with more calmness, patience and Dig- nity in Counsel, in the Legislature, and in the Execu- tive Seat. Besides Langdon is rich. Gerry has sacri- ficed like all the active Patriots of the Revolution his Fortune, Family, Time and Prospects. He is moreover several years younger in age, though older in public service." It is indeed reported here that Mr. Langdon will de- 388 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. cline : but I own, it is so unusual for an old Man to resist the combined Temptations of Salary, Dignity and Fame, that I doubt. But if he should Mr. Gerry ought not to have been subjected to the Remark of the Multitude, that Langdon was preferred to him. It is one more of the egregious blunders of the present Congress. I am so weary of it, that I regret it has another Winter to serve. I am almost of John Ran- dolphs opinion that no change can be for the worse. Yet if a federal administration should come in they would do no better: perhaps, and indeed I fear still worse. The sketch that I have given of all the Republicks of the World is but an History of our own. I called it "A Boudoir" in which dear Country might see and con- template her own face and figure in every posture. Yours ut olim John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy May 28. 1812. Friend,-I will not lose an hour of my Interest of 8 per cent a Month. I have this moment received yours of 22d. I could paper my whole house with such ornaments as Franklin wished for his study ; and from Persons who owed Offices, Fortunes and all their con- sequence to me. St. Bernard, St. Loyala and St. Dominick, and many other saints remain in the Calender and are worshipped, as well as Whitefield and Westley and with as much reason, while their calumniators are forgotten, My Parson Wibert asked Whitefield whether the Libels OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 389 against him in the Newspapers and pamphlets did not hurt him ? Oh no said W. if they knew how much pleasure they give me, they would not write them. Pope said These Things are my diversion. But John- son says, the wrything of his Phiz while he read one of them shewed he was not sincere. I am at a loss for the sense in which the Devil is said to be the Prince of this World. This world with all its confusions and evils is much better governed than any Devil would govern it. I possess and have read a work in French in several volumes upon the subject of great events from small causes. The world is daily adding fresh examples to the Catalogue. The Nomination of Mr. Langdon is a late one. You probably know that in the conven- tion of 1787, a compromise was atchieved between the Northern and Southern States upon two points. One was the equal Representation in the Senate of the small with the great states; the other was the Representation of the Negroes of the Southern states in the House of Representatives. This bar- gain was conducted by Langdon at the head of the little states, and by Madison for the Negroes, or rather for their Masters. In 1793 Langdon, who had till then been an ardent Federalist suddenly shifted sides ; and his conversion was attributed to Mr. Madi- son, who it was currently reported had tempted him by the proposal to sett him up for Vice President in oppo- sition to me. This Report was spread so far and wide, that our learned and ingenious, and in the main upright and well meaning Essex Junto Chief Justice, Theophilus Parsons told me here in this house in 1793 or 1794, that the knowing ones in Congress had informed the know- 26 390 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ino- ones in Boston of the Fact, and ascribed to it, Mr. Langdons alienation from the Federalists. These two anecdotes shew a Confidence and Intimacy between Mr. Madison and Mr. Langdon of ancient date and long standing, and will account for the nomination of the latter for Vice President in preference to Mr. Gerry. I am sorry for this, because I am sure, that the one can- not add one half the weight to Mr. Madisons future administration of the national Government that the other would, at home nor abroad. Your parallel between public and private Insanity is a beautiful and most excellent moral and political Morsel. I care nothing for the little escape and accidental Leak you mention. But who is McCorkle ? and what is his paper? I know nothing of either. Our Tories crow, but their tryumph will not be of great consequence. They will make a few Sherriffs, a few Clerks and Secretaries, and few Notaries Public, and a few Inspectors of Fish and Potash, fly. It is uncertain whether we shall have any Electors. If we have they will be a chequered Body, a pied horse half black and half white. Had it not been for the embargo and the vote against Frigates Massachusetts, under Gerry would have been unanimous for Madison. In one of your Letters you say Cobbet was my ennemy. I believe you are mistaken. Some of his last Porcupines, and the Rush light in which I was abused as well as you, I have been informed were printed not by him but after he had given up the Paper to some British Tools. I know that not long before his departure he said to my Secretary " Malcom ! I solemnly OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 391 swear to you, that excepting my own Father and my King, there is not a Man upon the face of the earth that I revere so much as President Adams." And I have been informed that he said and wrote not long after his arrival in England that "John Adams was the greatest Politician in the World." These were extrava- gant speeches, but he could have no motive for the adulation, for I never in my life had any communica- tion with him and never saw his face to know it. At present his friendship or his enmity for me, or mine for him cannot be worth a farthing- to either of us. I have no use for Puffers. They can do me no good-they Quincy June 12. 1812. Dear Sir,-Ask the great Lady you quoted in your last, whether when I pray for the health of Philadelphia, and that no wasting sickness may prevail there, I make a Girlish or a coying compliment to Doctor Rush ? The next paragraph requires a graver answer. But a Volume would not suffice. Take a hint. I have lived among Infidel Philosophers more than half a Century, and been engaged in continued disputes with them. This has compelled me to spend more time in reading Universal History but especially Ecclesiastical History, than has been for my Interest or Comfort. While the Result has been an increasing Love for Christianity, as I understand it, a growing Jealousy of the Priesthood has accompanied it all the way. Levites, Magi, Fa- quirs, Mandarines, Mufti, Druids, Popes, Cardinals, 392 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Archbishops, Bishops, Bernardines, Jacobins, Domin- icans, Westleys, the Prophet of Wabash, or Tippe- canoe, Nimrod Hughs Christopher McPherson, and even Priestley and Price, even Dr. Ewing, Dr. Rogers and Dr. Dwight, have conspired together to rivet to my soul the Duty and Necessity of Toileration. These general assemblies of Presbyterian Divines are general Councils in embrio. We shall have Creeds and Confessions, Church discipline and Excommunica- tion. We shall have the civil Government overawed and become a Tool. We shall have Armies and their Commanders under the orders of Monks. We shall have Hermits commanding Napoleons. I agree with you, there is a Germ of Religion in human Nature so strong, that whenever an order of Men can persuade the People by flattery or Terror, that they have Salva- tion at their disposal, there can be no end to fraud, Violence or Usurpation. CEcumenical Councils pro- duce CEcumenical Bishops, and both, subservient Ar- mies, Emperors and Kings. The National Fast, recommended by me turned me out of office. It was connected with the general assem- bly of the Presbyterian Church, which 1 had no concern in. That assembly has allarmed and alienated Quakers, Anabaptists, Mennonists, Moravians, Swedenborgians, Methodists, Catholicks, protestant Episcopalians, Arians, Socinians, Armenians, &c, &c, &c, Atheists and Deists might be added. A general Suspicion prevailed that the Presbyterian Church was ambitious and aimed at an Establishment as a National Church. I was repre- sented as a Presbyterian and at the head of this politi- cal and ecclesiastical Project. The secret whispers ran through them [all the sects] "Let us have Jefferson, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 393 Madison, Burr, any body, whether they be Philosophers, Deists, or even Atheists, rather than a Presbyterian President." This principle is at the bottom of the un- popularity of national Fasts and Thanksgiving. Noth- ing is more dreaded than the National Government meddling with Religion. This wild Letter, I very much fear, contains seeds of an Ecclesiastical History of the U. S. for a Century to come. I recollect a little sparring between Jefferson and me on some religious subject, not ill natured however, but have forgotten the time and the particular subject. I wish you would give me the circumstances of the whole Anecdote. The similitude between 1773 and 1774, and 1811 and 1812 is obvious. It is now said by the Tories that we were unanimous in 1774. Nothing can be farther from the Truth. We were more divided in 74 than we are now. The Majorities in Congress in 74 on all the essential points and Principles of the Declaration of Rights, were only one, two or three. Indeed all the great critical questions about Men and Measures from 1774 to 1778 were decided by the vote of a single state, and that vote was often decided by a single Individual. Jumble and Chaos as this Nation appears at this moment, I never knew it better united. It is always so. The History of the World is nothing but a narrative of such divisions. The Stuarts abdicated or were turned out and William came in by one or two votes. I was turned out by the votes of S. Carolina not fairly obtained. Jefferson came in by one vote, after 37 Tryals between him and Burr. Our expedi- tion against Cape Breton and consequent Conquest of Louisburg in 1745 which gave peace to the World was 394 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. carried in our House of Representatives of Massachu- setts by one single vote. The abolition of old Tenor in 1750 was decided by one vote. What is more awful than all. The Trinity was carried in a general Council by one vote against a Quaternity: the Virgin Mary lost an equality with the Father, Son and Spirit only by a single suffrage. All the great affairs of the World temporal and spiritual, as far as Men are concerned in the discussion and decision of them are determined by small Majorities. The Repulsion in human nature is stronger than the Attraction. Division, Separation are inevitable. My Boudoir, which you sometimes honour with your recollection is but an exemplification in all ages and Nations of this repulsive Power. I know not whether you have ever seen a Boudoir. I never heard of one in G. Britain or America. I had two of them in my House at Auteuil, which was nothing less than the magnificent Hotel de Rohan. A Boudoir is a pouting Room. The Idea is, when the Lady has the vapours, and is a little out of health or humour she may retire to a Bath in the Centre of this apartment and contemplate her own Face and figure in every possible direction and position, till the sight of her own irresist- ible Charms shall restore her good opinion of herself, and her usual gaiety and good humour. The Room is an Octagon. Eight entire and imaculate French Mir- rors extending from the floor to the Ceiling compose the eight sides. The Ceiling too is one entire Mirror. So that the Lady cannot turn to any point of the Compass without seeing herself multiplied an hundred times, indeed ad infinitum. My Boudoir is such a room ; in which our dear United States may contem- plate themselves and see their own defects as well as OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 395 Beauties. I hope it will never be used to teach wanton Experiments, as it is easy to see the Ladies bathing room may be. As old Men are apt to repeat, I may have told you this story before more than once. By my Boudoir I mean the three volumes of " Defence" and a fourth volume as an Appendix called " Dis- courses on Devils." When I hear a Man boast of his indifference to pub- lic Censure, I think of Henry the 4th. A Braggadocio in his Army Solicited advancement and command, and to enforce his Pretensions, he extolled and exalted his own Courage. "Sire, I know not what fear is: I never felt fear in my Life." "I presume then, Sir," said the good natured Monarch, "you never attempted to snuff a Candle with your Thumb and finger." Let Mrs. Rush laugh at my Girlish Folly as she will [which I cannot in honor or conscience deny] I will confess and insist upon it, that your gentle emolients feel more comfortable to my skin, than the Blisters of Paine, Hamilton and Callender. I have heard much of Washingtons impatience under the lash of scribblers, some of it from his own mouth. Mr. Lear related to me one Mornino- the Gen- o erals ripping and rascalling Phillip Freneau for sending him his Papers full of abuse. Many causes concurred to induce the Generals Res- ignation. 1. His Ministers plagued him as they did me, after- wards. 2. He could not get Ministers such as he wanted, to serve with Hamilton. Several refused, and he was com- pelled to take such as he did not like, particularly Pick- ering and McHenry. This I know from his own Mouth. 396 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 3. He knew there was to be an opposition to him at the next Election and he feared he should not come in unanimously. 4. The Times were critical, the labour fatiguing, many Circumstances disgusting and he felt weary and longed for retirement; though he soon found solitude more fatiguing, more disgusting, and longed to return to public Bustle again. Besides my Popularity was growing too splendid, and the Millions of Addresses to me from all quarters piqued his Jealousy. The great Eulogium "First in War, first in Peace and first in the affections of his Country" was suspected by him and all his Friends to be in some danger. 5. I believe he expected to be called in again after a four years respite, as he certainly would have been had he lived. I heartily wished he might live or had lived for that very purpose, and I expressed as much in my answer to the Senates address upon his death. I was then convinced we must have him or Jefferson and I thought him then the least visionary of the two. Con- sidering his Connection with Hamilton, I am now not so clear I was then right. I must come to an end of my Letter though I shall never find an end of my Regards to Mrs. Rush or her Husband notwithstanding her just admonition to the incurable, incorrigible scribbler John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy June 24. 1812. Dear Sir,-The Decadency of Government is ob- vious through the World and it is to be feared the cause of it is the general Relaxation of family discipline. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 397 It becomes you and me seriously to consider whether we have not contributed our share to this general evil. Within a few days my Rib had the boldness to say to me "When you write to Dr. Rush, you string together epithets and adverbs and substantives, just as the Boys string their Robbins eggs in long Rows in the Spring." Yet this exceeds but very little what yours said of both of us. Oug-ht not some measures to be taken to teach these Ladies some reverence for their Lords ? This important observation however was not the object I had in view when I took up my Pen to inter- rupt you in your visits to your Patients. Some unknown one has sent me " An American View of American Affairs" printed by Bronson. I wish to know the Writer. Some young Gentleman I presume, whose Pen has not ran long enough to glide with ease. The Pamphlet is full of fashionable larpta, to our infallible Guide : but this is not so surprising as some- thing he says about me ; which, whether intended as a Compliment or a Sarcasm, required a degree of bold- ness very uncommon in this age. The decent Free- doms with Jefferson and Madison shew him to be a Federalist, but whether a Quaker or not, he is not an Englishman, at least if he has not put on a Mask. When I read my name in a Newspaper or a Pamphlet, unattended with expressions of Contempt or Malice, I esteem it an honour and receive it as a Compliment. It is astonishing to see how little the Policy of this Union is understood and how totally forgotten or mis- remembered is its History. What does this Man mean by " the strong Features of my Character, which I im- 398 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. pressed on the Counsels of my Country " ? The Pru- dence of an Individual is the Policy of a Nation. Self Preservation is the first Law of Nature to both. It is the first Duty of a Statesman especially of the first Magistrate of a Nation to watch and provide for the Preservation and Safety of his Country in all her In- terests ; her Agriculture, her Commerce, her Naviga- tion, her Fisheries, all her Rights on the Ocean and on the Land; nay I will add her Morals, her Religion, in some degree or other ; her Liberties ; and as indispen- sable to the preservation of all and every one of these, to preserve a National Consciousness of her own Rights, a National Feeling of her own Power, a National Re- sentment of National Wrongs and Injuries. France, under Washingtons Administration, had, in defiance of all Laws human and divine, plundered our Commerce in every sea in Europe and the West Indies, she had insulted us to our Faces, she had invaded your Delaware River and taken our there, she had entered the harbour of Charleston, S. C. and burned a ship with five hundred Tons of sugar at Noon Day in sight of the World. She had plundered our Ships and Cargoes to more than twenty Millions of Dollars in value. When these Injuries were felt, and an Am- bassador sent by Washington to remonstrate against these outrages, that Ambassador was rejected with Contempt. When Washington slipped his Neck out of the Collar and left me to inherit his Contentions and his Ministers and I sent a new Embassy of three, Pinckney, Gerry and Marshall, these were rejected with Contempt, and worse than Contempt. Attempts were made to terrify them as if they had been Chil- dren ; demands were made of them of insufferable OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 399 Insolence, and even Bribes were demanded of them to a very large amount. In these Circumstances what "strong Features of Character" were exhibited? Is there a dastard? Is there a Poltroon ? Is there a Stock or a Stone in these United States, that did not feel ? Measures were taken with the utmost Coolness, Moderation and Simplicity by the Congress of the Eighteenth Century to defend the Country and Demand Justice, not to take Revenge. And a Plan was laid of Revenue, Navy Yards and Naval Power, and executed too, which looked forward with a prudent Foresight to the defence and Preserva- tion of the Country in future exigencies, which from the state of Europe were foreseen, and which ought to have been foreseen not only by the wisest Men, but by the simplest Men in the Nation. Who destroyed this system ? The Congress of the Nineteenth Century: who by repealing the Taxes, have emptied their Treasury? Who by mud docking my Navy have disarmed themselves at sea? Who by a shallow superficial thoughtless Policy have involved themselves in embarrassments and distress enough to make them objects of universal Pitty ? The Prudence of the 18 Century is called now in the 19th. " The Profligate Administration of John Adams !" "The mad ambition of John Adams!" &c, &c, &c. Is this the reasoning, the Veracity, the Justice, the Gravity, the Dignity, the deliberation of a Legislative Assembly ? or is it the Ravings of your Patients in your tranquil- izing Chairs ? June 26. War! War! War! Sure enough. Whose " Profligacy" is this? Whose "mad ambition"? An Alien Law will now be wanted, and to be executed too. 400 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Mine never was in a single instance. Or will they tolerate Spies and Traitors with bribes in their hands to roam about, to haunt every tavern, to loyter in every corner, exciting Plotts, Seditions and Treasons. A Sedition Law will be wanted. Or will the News- papers be tolerated in propagating the ingenious specu- lations of Henry and Carpenter? &c, &c, &c, in telling the World that our Rulers are "Knaves and Fools?" " Ennemies to their Country?" "Sold to France?" "That England is our best Friend?" "France our worst Enemy but one, that is our own Congress ?" Weak, Short Sighted, Shallow, Superficial Children! You ought to have foreseen all this fourteen years ago, as the madly ambitious, the profligate, the strong featured John Adams did, to his and his Countries cost. So no more at present from your strong featured Friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. N.B.-Hamilton, Indiequin, and Rush have hinted somethino- about " bursts of Passion," " Bursts of Temper," &c. I have something to say on this subject hereafter, when it shall be again a healthy time in Philadelphia. Quincy July 7th. 1812. Dear Sir,-If I were as rich as Mr. Stephen Gerard or Mr. William Grey, I would publish and proclaim offers and promises of Rewards in Gold and Silver, in OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 401 Money and in Medals, for the best essays on several subjects, some of which I will now hint without any regard to arrangement. 1. too Dollars or Eagles if I could afford them and a Gold Medal for the best History of our American Navy and its exploits as well as of its rise and progress in 1775, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1780, 1, 2 and three. 2. Ditto for the best History of the American Navy in 1797, 8, 9, 1800, 1801, 1802. 3. For the most compleat History of Gallatins Insur- rection, its rise, progress, decline and suppression. 4. Ditto for the best Relation in detail of the Motives, causes, views, designs and actions in Fries's Insurrec- tion ; and of the Measures civil, political, military and judicial employed to suppress it. 5. Ditto for the most exact, impartial and intelligible Comparison between these Insurrections, their Causes, Conduct, Suppression and consequences. 6. Ditto for the best History of the Friendship and Benevolence of Great Britain towards America from the year 1600 to 1774. 7. An hundred thousand eagles for a true History of the American Revolution. These are but a few of the generous projects I have in contemplation, but I will not trouble you with too many at once. I pray you to suggest to me such sub- jects as want and merit encouragement, that when I shall be worth half a Dozen million I may give full scope to my benevolence. I will appoint John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush, the Judges. I believe with you that Wars are the natural and un- avoidable effect of the constitution of human Nature and the fabric of the Globe it is destined to inhabit and 402 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. to rule. I believe further that Wars, at times, are as necessary for the preservation and perfection, the Prosperity, Liberty, Happiness, Virtue and indepen- dence of Nations as Gales of Wind to the Salubrity of the Atmosphere, or the Agitations of the Ocean to prevent its Stagnation and putrifaction. As I believe this to be the constitution of God Almighty and the constant order of his Providence, I must esteem all the speculations of Divines and Phylosophers about uni- versal and Perpetual Peace, as short sighted frivolous Romances. Your Reflection in your Yard of Insanity, reminds me of mine in the Royal Menagerie at Versailles, viz. What should a Man say to this Assembly of Birds and Beasts, if he had thoughts of recommending to them the Institution of a Republican Government by uni- versal suffrage? Just the same as he could rationally say to the same number of Frenchmen taken at random or by choice from the Court, the City, the Country, the Army, the Navy, the Merchants, Tradesmen, Farmers, or the Sorbonne or the Church. The Project of a Re- publican Government in France was often suggested in conversation even there and occupied much of my thoughts during the whole time I was in that Country. In my Letter of the 3rd. of this month I have cor- rected a Mistake of your Pen or Memory. It was Hillsborough not Grenville who expressed the Jealousy of American Canvas and Tars. I have not calculated with precision enough yet to resolve the Theorem whether the Banking Capital does not exceed the value of the Fee Simple of the United States. The Sunday before last I went to the next Town to OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 403 Church, our Minister having gone to the Funeral of his Brother. A Mr. Shelden, the occasional Preacher one of our ardent spirits in Pulpit oratory told us that "Awakenings" and "Revivals" produced great divisions in Society. They set Fathers against Sons, Mothers against Daughters, Brothers against Brothers, Sisters against Sisters, Neighbour against Neighbour and Friend against Friend. Wars do as much of this as Revivals or Awakenings, and I believe as innocently and piously. Your Family is peculiarly situated: but I doubt not every Branch of it will perform its duty with honor and Integrity. Our Massachusetts and Connecticut are a little out of humour and are retaliating upon Virginia and Pen- silvania in 1798 somewhat grossly: but the little eddy in the Atmosphere will dissipate and whirl away. A vote to build a few Frigates would blow it off at once. I have made my sons and Daughters sing " There is no Comfort in the house when my good Girls awa" these thirty years. It is one of the best Morsels of Poetry that ever was conceived. Adieu. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy July 18. 1812. Your Letter of the 8th., my dear Friend is pleasing and it is painfull to me, in a high degree. You are not less allarmed than I am grieved, at the opposition to the general Government in our State. But I am more allarmed and grieved at the Apologies furnished for it by that general Government in their 404 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. stupid embargo and their wicked refusal to build a few more Frigates. You will daily read more and more of the Rage of New England and perhaps New York. The real Ob- ject is a Change of President. The Means they employ are exactly those of Virginia and Pensilvania in 1798 and nine. If they succeed, what then ? Truth, Honour, Justice will say Nec Jus est justior ulla Quam necis artifices arte perire sua. You may think that personal Feelings dictate these Reflections. God forbid. My personal Feelings are of no more weight with me, in such circumstances of the public, than the feelings of a Rosebug, that I daily crush between the Thumb and finger of my leather Glove. You say the physical force of my State equals that of yours. This is conceding too much in one sense. Your Numbers are superiour ; your Wealth is at least equal, I believe superiour. You have Knowledge and Talents at least equal, perhaps superiour, among you. What then ? Bring the Massachusetts and Pensilvania into Col- lision and Conflict, at the present moment, and we would drive you to the Mississippi and drown you in the River. How can this be? you will say. I will tell you. You are as brave as we are. I doubt it not, and as honest. What then. We have-System ; we have method ; we have order ; we have more than one hun- dred thousand free thinkers and free voters; we have Preparation ; we have a Militia, organised, disciplined ; OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 405 we have Cavalry and Infantry; Horse, foot and dragoons; and we have Artillery; one hundred and thirty seven brass Field Pieces belonging to Companies of Artillery scattered through the State, stand recorded in the legal official Returns to the Legislature. Nay the two immortal Pieces, christened the Hancock and Adams, the only ones we possessed in 1775 are still ready to pour forth their muttering and complaining Thunders in case of need. Our Militia have arms and uniforms, and System. What have yours? You had better not compel New England to reveal herself to herself. You had better not compell New England to reveal herself to her Sister States. You had better not compell her to reveal herself to the World. If you do, you will find something of which you and the Con- tinent and the World have at present no Idea. With you, I think the present War with Great Britain just and necessary ; and with you I am determined to stand or fall with the National Government. The War will be as ruinous to me as to you. I could easily shew you in what manner. But as I have sacrificed every Thing to the Union through my whole Life, I shall not depart from that Principle at present. Intimate as we have been you know but little of the sacrifices I have made to that great Object. You have advised and urged me to write my own Life. I shall never do it. But if I should attempt any sketches they shall be addressed to you. But suppose New England and New York should prevail and turn out Mr. Madison as Mr. Madison and Mr. Jefferson turned me out in 1800. What will fol- low ? Suppose they get Mr. Jay for President and Mr. Clay for Vice President, what will they do ? Will they 27 406 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. acknowledge the sovereignty of the seas in G. Britain ? Will they acknowledge the British Doctrine of Block- ades ? Will they acknowledge the Right of Visitation, Search and Impressment of Seamen ? Will they give up the Claim of Compensation for two or three hun- dred vessels piratically taken and piratically condemned by their Puppet tool of a Judge of Admiralty deciding against the Law of Nations in obedience to usurping orders in Council ? Oh dear ! thus far had I written when called down to breakfast I beheld by the side of my Bowl of Chocolate your Letter unsealed of the 13th. I swallowed its Para- graphs between every two spoonfuls, and it made me forget War, Politicks, Parties, Factions and every Feel- ing of ill nature. I never read a Letter from you with so much pleasure. And I am sure I cannot invent a stronger expression. You shall hear more of this Letter. But not now. I will return from this digres- sion to my first subject. What measures will the new administration that is to turn out Mr. Madison adopt and pursue ? Can they make a Peace with England, without Humiliations and Concessions, surrendering the Rights of Nations, and a very important part of our national Sovereignty and Independence ? I am confident they cannot. And will this proud Continent submit to such disgrace ? I feel that it will not. Will this virtuous Nation be guilty of such Wickedness? Can this honest People commit such Knavery and Treachery? Can generous souls think of such baseness ? Again, can we submit to all this Infamy, without in- curring a certain War with France and all her Allies? The bebritished Party would meet this consequence OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 407 with Joy. But will the People of America ? I begin to doubt my own Judgment in every Thing ; but either I have no sense, or the American People have more sense and more honesty than to exchange a War with Britain for a War with France and all her Allies. A northern Confederacy would excite and compel a southern Confederacy. A northern Alliance with Brit- ain would compel a southern Alliance with France. A southern Alliance with France would cede Canada to France. A French Standard once erected in Canada, and the Canadian French would do the Business. My northern Brothers must see this. They can mean nothing but to turn out Madison. In this I hope and believe they will not succeed. They may also mean to get a Navy. In this I hope they will succeed. They must, they shall succeed. A Navy of Privateers at least. Our northern states will fit out Frigates and seventy fours for Privateers, rather than not have a maritime Protection, if the War continues. In 1775 &c. the Flames of Charlestown and Falmouth and in subsequent years the Prison Church of New York and the Prison Ships would have set fire to a marble Statue or a Palace of Ice. There will very soon be inflammation enough. Fredericks Reason was like Cromwells, Napoleons and Hamiltons. It was as confused as the Logos of Plato, the Ratio of Manilius, or the Reason of Tom Paine, and the human mind of Condorcet. You are the "Friends of Peace?" And who is not? Would they Apostatize from the Law of Na- tions, acknowledge a Despotism on the Ocean, ac- knowledge the K. of England's Proclamation for visiting and searching ships for the purpose of impressing Men, 408 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. submit to Paper Blockades of the whole Globe, give up the unnumbered Millions of Property piratically plun- dered, sollicit the Protection of the British Navy, form an Alliance offensive and defensive with that power and declare War against France. Nothing short of all this will procure Peace with Great Britain at present. Is your Bar ready to subscribe to all this? Those who conceive hopes from a Change of Ministry in England are deceived. They know not the Character, the dominant Passions of the English Nation. I thank you for Mr. Ingersols Oration, whose elo- quence, and Sentiment and Prophecies are very fasci- nating to my Feelings. The Panegyric on the Control- lers Oration in the Newspaper is no surprise to me. I expected as much, and expect more still from the Pamphlet when I can obtain it. Richard has the true fire of the Flint. He is a genuine Branch of the old stock. I have overlooked, perhaps the most important Point in your Letter, to wit the Sin that has proved dis- pleasure and brought down the Judgment of War. The Sins are many; Whiskey, Banks, &c., &c., &c., &c., &c. ad infinitum. But if there is any Thing in Morality or Religion, the Injustice, the Ingratitude and the Hypocrisy to which you allude must be one black bead in the long rosary. Did you ever visit Passaick River? Your Daughter has no doubt seen Niagara. The dashing and washing and Roaring of the Word Washington ! Washington ! Washington ! deafens, stuns and confounds multi- tudes who are spectators or within hearing. How many Young Ladies and Young Gentlemen? how many Old Ladies and Old Gentlemen have been pre- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 409 cipitated down this Cataract from sheer dizziness as fatally as the beautiful Mrs. Cummins down the Falls of Passaick? There is no distinction of Parties here. Republicans and Federalists are equally guilty. There is not how- ever one Man of sense in either Party who is sincere in this Idolatry. It is all pure Hypocrisy. Every one of them knows that Washington was neither Pilot, Steersman, Sailing Master or real Captain. I have passed over another point in this or some former Letter. You teach your Family that there is no Religion in France, but much in England. Here I differ. There is according to all my observation as much Religion and Morality in France as in England. There is as much Atheism, Deism, Pyrronism and every species of Infidelity in England as in France. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy July 19. 1812. Dear Sir,-Your delightful Letter of the 13th. re- ceived yesterday now in turn must receive my grateful acknowledgements. Is it a dream ? Or is it Biography ? When I write my Life in obedience to your Commands, I ought to insert in it the Anecdote, that once upon a time I had the Pleasure and the honour, in your and your Brothers Company, and at the Invitation of both, to make a visit to your amiable Mother, at the House and Farm as I suppose, which you revisited on the 1 ith. of this month. I am a Hopkintonian-in part-So was Fenelon ! So was Bishop Butler. See his sermons and his pref- 410 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. ace. So was Hutchinson the Scott: so was unkle Toby; at least he felt it, if he did not think much of the Theory. What do you mean, you will say, by all this Mystic Talk ? I mean that I believe in the Doctrine of dis- interested Benevolence. And as sincerely as Dr. Spring of Newbury Port. Your Feeling at that House and on that Farm were pure disinterested Benevolence. What are the feelings ? the sensations ? the Reflec- tions, in your Letter. "These, fair Creature, are thy- self." The Feelings of Nature ; Feelings which Nature irresistably excites ; Feelings which our maturest and most deliberate Reason approves; Feelings which our consciences authoritatively command us to love; Feel- ings in which we exult; Feelings which we are intui- tively, I may say instinctively certain that God and Man, Angels and purified Spirits must approve and applaud ; Feelings which make us delight and glory in existence, and ardently wish and pray for Immortality. What a Fenelonian! says Bossuet. Pope! bull him to excommunication, and the Flames ! What a mad rant of enthusiasm, says Diderot and Condorcet. What Idiots and Lunaticks are Diderot and Condorcet say I. And here the account is ballanced. How superstitious! say Hobbes Mandeville and Rochefaucault. What un- feeling Brutes ! What stupid Blocks or unprincipled Vil- lains were Hobbes Mandeville and Rochefaucault! say I. Nature has ordained that early impressions on our Minds should be durable. The Ideas and the sensa- tions acquired and felt in the Cradle, in the arms of our Mothers, and on the Knees of our Fathers, as well as afterwards acquired at school and at Colledge seldom leave us till we die. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 411 All affections for others ; for Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Neighbour, Friend, Country, are Benevo- lence ; disinterested Benevolence. But I have given you Paradoxes enough for one letter. After all, my Friend, what a Damper? These Feel- ings are the sources, the springs, the Principles of Aris- tocracy and Nobility among Negroes and Indians, Tartars and Arabs, Chinese and Hindoos, Russians and Germans, Italians and Moors, Germans and Hun- garians, French, English, Spaniards and Portuguese; nay among our poor, degraded, divided, distracted States of America! If a little of Politicks creeps in, I cannot help it. I did not seek it, I did not think of it. It rushed in with the subject. Retaliation, the old Jewish Doctrine of an eye for an eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth, has revived and taken possession of the World for a time. I shall take ad- vantage of the Fashion so far as to retaliate upon you, your Family History. I would give more money than the circumstances of my Family could afford for such a Family History of my Friend Jay. Such Fami- lies are for a Time the salt of the Earth, and in their course become its Poison and its curse. Dios d'etelioto Boulee. I have not Time to look in Homer for the Greek Characters. Henry Adams a congregational Dissenter from the Church of England persecuted by the intollerant spirit of Archbishop Laud, came over to this Country with eight sons in the Reign of King Charles the first. One of the eight returned to England: seven remained in America and left Families, who by Intermarriage and natural Generation have multiplied like the sands on 412 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. the sea shore or the starrs in the Milky Way; to such a degree that I know not who there is in America to whom I am not related. My Family I believe have cut down more Trees in America than any other Name. What a Family distinction ! have I not a right to glory in it ? There are however no Parchments to prove it and the Fact may be disputed. I do not therefore insist upon it. This Henry and his son Joseph became original Pro- prietors of the Town of Braintree incorporated in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty nine, having previously settled near the foot of Mount Wollaston which was then incorporated with twenty seven thou- sand acres of Land in the new Township. This Henry and his son Joseph my Great Grandfather, and his Grandson Joseph my Grandfather, whom I knew, tho he died in 1739, and John my Father who died in 1761 all lie buried in the congregational Church yard in Quincy, half a mile from my house. These were all possessed of landed Estates and all Tradesmen. They wrought on their Farms in Summer and at their Trades in Winter. All reared Families of eight, ten or a dozen Children, except my Father who had but three. All these Children were married and had numerous Fami- lies ; and such was the effect of Industry, Frugality, Regularity and Religion, that Death was rarer among them than Men and Women of 70, 80, 90 and 96 years of age. You may suppose that we have as steady habits as the pious Folk of Connecticutt when I tell you that of all the Land that was ever owned by any one of the Breed is now owned by some one of the Name and Blood, excepting about ten acres of miserable stony OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 413 land, which my Father was compelled to take for a Debt, and which he sold to defray part of the expense of my education at Colledge. The second House that was built by my ancestor on the original spot was taken down two or three years ago at the age of one hundred and forty years. The Land remains in two Men, direct descendents, of the same name. I would give twice the value of it, but I should as soon think of asking them to sell me two Pounds of their Flesh like Shylock. On their first set- tlement they erected a Malthouse pro more Anglicano, which converted Barley into Beer for the whole Town and Neighbourhood. Many a time when I was a little Boy have I carried Barley for my Father to be malted by my Great Uncle, Captain and Deacon Peter Adams, who used to pat my Cheeks and pinch my ears and laugh and play and sport with me as if I were one of his younger schoolmates. In the month of March last I was called to the House in another part of the Town which was built by my Father, in which he lived and died and from which I buried him ; and in the Chamber in which I was born I could not forbear to weep over the remains of a beautiful child of my son Thomas, that died of the whooping Cough. Why was I preserved of a Cen- tury, and that Rose cropped in the Bud? I, almost dead at Top and in all my Limbs, and wholly useless to myself and the world? Great Teacher tell me. What has preserved this race of Adams's in all their ramifications in such Numbers, health peace Comfort and Mediocrity? I believe it is Religion, without which they would have been Rakes, Fops, Sots, Gamblers, Starved with hunger, frozen with Cold, Scalped by In- 414 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. dians, &c„ &c., &c., been melted away and disap- peared. Richards oration has been in such demand, snatched and hurried away from me by so many, that I have not had opportunity to read it by myself deliberately. That greatest Part of it has been read to me, by the oldest Colonel in the Continental revolutionary Army, now living; one who has commanded Wilkinson and even Brooks. The crippled Veteran cryed out "This young Gentleman makes my old Blood fly through my veins as it did in my youth." Farewell. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy August i. 1812. Doctor Rush,-We have been in such hurry of late that if I have mentioned your Letter of 18th. of June, I have not taken any particular Notice of it. You and I have both been to blame. You, for de- stroying your notes of the Revolution; I, for keeping none and making very few. You have much Merit in preserving the Pamphlets you have given to the orator- ical Controuler, who is a Phenomenon, for who ever heard before of an Orator, a Lawyer and a Mathema- tician and an Accountant, united in one person ? I am much to blame for preserving no Pamphlets. I have been overwhelmed with such multitudes of them in America, France, Holland and England, that if I had attempted to preserve them I must have said as the Evangelist said in his time of the spurious Gospells, Acts and Epistles "the world could not contain them." You were better employed in the service of your fellow Men, Women and Children. I was fully employed OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 415 whether better or worse I know not. I was very safe in bidding high for a true History of the Revolution, because I knew as you know that no true History of it ever can be written. My Premium therefore never could have been awarded. I fasted not for strife. I eat nothing but half a small Pancake and a spoonful of green Pease the whole day: but went not to Church because I knew I should hear nothing but the Gazette, Centinel, Reper- tory and Palladium with something from the Pamphlet called " Mr. Madisons Warr." But I will go to Church on the Fast for Concord, but not to hear newspapers which I shall have read before. I devoutly believe in your " Nill, Dii mortalibus, sine Bello." Your Satyr upon our Nation, though a moral Lesson, is too mean a scourge. You lash like an over- seer, or a British Serjeant. I hate your " Non est fas, mihi audita loqui." I want to know it all. In the Investigation of Principles, and the search of Springs, you have gone through as much labour, ran as many risques, and suffered as much hardship as Bruce did in pursuit of the Sources of the Nile. But you have done more lasting good to your Species, by these means than he did. Your writings are worth much more than his ; and your Life has been much more use- full. I would agree to every part of your Amendment of the Constitution. I suppose Miss Lyman meant that I have so many spotts upon my Disk, that I must be removed to the distance of a fixed Starr before any Light can be dis- tinguished from the dark. I wish that any pure Rays 416 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. may ever be discernable. With all my childish Vanity, I have not an enemy that thinks more humbly of my Life than I do. Richards oration does honour to him and you, to his cause and Country. But I wish he had enlarged on one Topic. During the existence of the old Congress, during Washingtons Administration, during Adams's Administration, and during Jeffersons Administration for nearly seven years of it, the British Government never pretended to a Right of Impressment on board even our Merchant ships. They invariably cast the abuses upon the subordinate officers of their Navy. But in 1807 The King by an order in Council issued a Proclamation asserting his Right and commanding his officers of his Navy to visit and search for Men and to impress Men. When I saw that order in Council and that Proclamation I said it was a Declaration of War and ought to have been answered by a Declaration of War in Congress. I have been invariably of that opin- ion ever since. A thousand irregularities may be com- mitted by individuals subjects or Citizens but when a Power avows a hostile Law and practice, it can only be answered and repelled by a counter Law and Practice. Protections! Certificates of Birth! or Citizenship ! ought never to have been granted or asked. The Flagg is sufficient to protect even deserters from the Royal Navy, in a private as well as in a public ship. Sam. Adams's Liberty ; was like the Liberty of Par- son Burr of Worcester, an ancestor of Aaron : The Liberty of a Man chained hand and Foot in a Dun- geon ; that is a perfect Liberty to stay there. The Liberty of Stearne's Starling to flutter in his Cage, when he could not get out. The Liberty of the Patient OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 417 in your tranquillizing Chair. Sams Doctrine however is true ; and has a good tendency to excite Vigilance and Energy in defence of Freedom. The observation however was not original. It was not uncommon be- fore he was born. One is always in danger of adopting an opinion that human Nature was not made to be free. No Nation has long enjoyed that partial and imperfect emancipation that we call a free Government. Banks, Whiskey, Panis et Circenses, or some other Frivolities, whims, Caprices, and above all Idolatries and Military Glories, Luxuries, Arts, Sciences, Taste, Mausoleums, Statues, Pictures, Adulatory Histories and panegyrical orations, Lies, Slanders, Calumnies, Persecutions, have sooner or later undermined all Principles, corrupted all Morals, prostituted all Religion ; and where then is Liberty ? Adieu. John Adams. Dr. Rush. P.S.-Col. Smith left us yesterday with his Wife and Daughter for his home in Lebanon. They all carried with them Gratitude to you for your kind advice. After a year with us she has returned in good health. The veteran dwells on the scenes of War with as much animation as Uncle Toby and is as ardent to engage again. But,-I can blame nobody but him.-He is an Enemy to no Man but himself. * August 3rd. Gracious God, hast thou abandoned us to our reprobate Minds? Are we beginning a French Revolution? What News did I hear from Baltimore, at our Church Door yesterday? I will never cease to pour out myself to you. 418 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Speeches in Congress and State Assemblies and Town Meetings, Proceedings in the Legislature of Virginia, Libels of Callender Paine, Brown, Freneau, Duane, Austin and 20 &cs. produced Gallatins Rebellion and Fries's Riot and Rescue. Nor were your Presbyterian Clergy in the middle States guiltless. What was the effect? I was turned out and Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin came in. Such success could not but encour- age the practice. Now, Assemblages in Boston, votes of the Town, votes of the House, Speeches, Protests, Remonstrances &c., &c., &c., and I must add Prayers, Sermons in which the Libels of Newspapers and pamphlets are adopted and repeated, have wrought up the spirit of Party to a Frenzy. And when Men are given up to the rule of their Passions, they murder like Weazells, for the pleasure of murdering, like buldogs and blood- hounds in a fold of sheep. Tell me not that the Bos- ton Fever has not reached Baltimore. Who was Wag- ner ? A Clerk of Pickering. Who but Pickering first sett his Paper agoing ? Can you doubt that this was a Junto Plott? Wagner I suppose expected to be made Secretary of State by Madison : but disappointed, he acted as disappointed ambition usually does, that is gives itself to Envy and Revenge. Steel expected to be Secretary of the Treasury : disappointed he became my enemy, but not having a patron like Pickering he did not sett up a Newspaper. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 419 Quincy August 17. 1812. Your favour of the eighth, is another Monument to Virtue and Piety. I would rather have your Birth and descent than that of any Howard or Montmorency, any Bourbon or Austrian, any Guelph or Stewart. The Antifederalists, Democrats, Jacobins, Republicans and Frenchmen, for all these shades of Faction and gradations of Party united twenty years ago, to raise a popular clamour against me, for employing the term Wellborn. But I know not why such a phraze should be more odious or exceptionable, than well bred, well shaped, well formed, well made, well proportioned, well dressed, well fought or well written, well placed, well penned or well wrought, well flavoured, well painted, well drawn, well reasoned, well salted, well peppered, well cooked, well boiled, well roasted, well preserved, well pickled, well cured. A Man may believe with all Mankind, that there are distinctions of good, bad and indifferent in Birth and origin and descent, as well as in Beauty, Strength, Stature, figure, air, grace, Agility, Activity, Sense, Wit or humour, education, manners or morals, without advocating the senseless systems of Nobility in France, Germany, Geneva, Switzerland, Holland, Italy or England. Tho' the last is by far the least irrational of them all, and even of those of Greece and Rome. Cheetham said "We Republicans respect Birth in Practice but not in Theory." This was Cheethams sense. I know not how any practice can be justified, that is not founded in some Theory, i.e. in some Princi- ple. Our Friend Priestley argued against Birth, because the Turks paid no regard to it. This when I read it, 420 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. appeared to me like saying that Virtue was good for nothing because the Devil does not like it. Despotism stands on Wachusett Hill. All the World appears and is on a level below him. The tallest Poppies as well as the shortest must be mowed down at his Nod; or he would soon be hurled from his Height. How is it, my Friend, that I, poor, ignorant I, must stand before Posterity as differing from all the great Men of the Age ? Priestley, Price, Franklin, Burke, Fox, Pitt, Mansfield, Cambden, Jefferson, Madison? So it is. I shall be judged the most vain, conceited, impu- dent, arrogant Creature in the World. I tremble when I think of it. I blush, I am ashamed. But as I have Dr. Rush and one or two others to keep me in Counte- nance I hope I shall not be wholly reprobated. Butler and Barrow were the deepest Thinkers of all the Divines I have ever read in English. The latter had so clear a head that he was a Roman Catholick: at least as much as Burke or Johnson. "A clear head !" Aye. No clear headed Man ; no Man who sees all the consequences of a proposition, can be an orthodox Church of England Man without being a Roman Cath- olic: as no orthodox Catholic, who pursues his Princi- ples to their logical consequences can refuse to justify Guy Faux, or the Massacres of Ireland or of Katherine de Medici. The French Lady in Paris thought she had such a clear head, when she said, " Je ne puis pas suffrir les Protestans. Apres avoir avaler le premier chapitre de Genese, on ne doit pas s'arreter a rien." In your proposed work upon madness, I hope you will give us a dissertation on clear heads. I object to your black Cloud. An infinitely blacker cloud hung over us in 1774; and an infinitely blacker OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 421 cloud hung over us in 1797 when I mounted my Rosi- nante. Nay, a blacker Cloud hung over us in Shaises Insurrection, in Gallatins Insurrection, in Fries's insur- rection than these flying heat lightening Clouds, that the Western Winds have brought over us. The Wind is now Northwest as it should be. We may have a thunder Gust and a Shower ; but fair weather must and will follow it, that is as much settled weather as our Country, our People and our Government will or can admit. It is not the first time that this Country has been in a hurricane in the Gulph Stream. It is not the first time that Thunder or lightning have cracked our Mainmast so that we have been obliged to fish it. It is not the first time that three and twenty Men have been struck with lightening, four struck down upon deck and one mortally wounded. I acknowledge all the blunders you have hinted at, and a thousand more. But I say we do not make more mis- takes now than we did in 1774, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 80, 81, 82, 83. It was patched and piebald Policy then, as it is now, ever was, and ever will be, world without end. The essen- tial stamina remain and will remain. Health will be restored. The main Pillars are founded upon a Rock. Winds and Floods will not shake them. As I said to my wife 37 years ago in an intercepted Letter, You and I may rue. But what are you and I to 8 millions of People ? what are you and I to the Family of Man. Great Britain demands of us Treason against human Nature. She demands of us the Repeal and Surrender of the Law of Nations. We project every thing, we conduct every Thing, as well now as we did in our War, and we are now better united than we were then. Do you remember the Conduct of our War in Canada? 28 422 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. We lost it there by the eternal opposition to it, and em- barrassment thrown in the way of it, in Congress, and if we lose it now, it will be by the same means, and will be nothing new. Such is the Destiny of Man in his terrestrial exist- ence that nothing good is to be obtained but by much tribulation. The overthrow of the horrors of papal superstition, and the introduction of religious Liberty in France, have been produced amid all the horrors of the last twenty years. May these Ameliorations of Existence never be lost. Remember our old Motto, Tribulatio ditat. We shall and we must be whipped and beaten into Wisdom and preparation. Can you think of an error more palpable than to invade Canada without a previous preparation of a decided superiority of naval Force upon the Lakes? Recollect Hamiltons Threats of an history of Washing- tons Battles and Campaigns. Recollect the Hospital System ; and then talk of your black Cloud. The approaching election is the blackest Cloud that I see. I never could and cannot yet calculate the Eclipses of New York and Pensilvania ; their conjunc- tions and oppositions : but one thing I know that New England must not much longer be despized, trampled on and trodden under foot. Adieu. John Adams. Commerce must be protected. Naval Force for that purpose must be provided.-Or-fill up the blank with as many Clouds, Storms, Pestilences, Earthquakes as you will. Your inventive Genius, your creative Imagi- nation can suggest nothing- too horrible. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 423 Quincy September 4. 1812. My dear Friend,-Little can be added to your dis- tinctions of Principles and delineation of Parties, in your Letter of the 21st of August. Permit me, how- ever, to intimate one idea. The pious and virtuous Hamilton, in 1790, began to teach our Nation Christi- anity, and to commission his followers to cry down Jefferson and Madison as Atheists in league with the French Nation, who were all Atheists. Your British Federalists, and your " Tory Federalists" instantly joined in the clamour ; their Newspapers and their Pul- pits, at least in New England, have resounded with these denunciations for many years. At the same time, Great Britain has been represented as the Bulwark of civil Liberty and the Protestant Religion. All the pious Souls in the World are in England and America. Napoleon is Anticrist. The Milennium is near. You would be utterly astonished to attend one of our Federal Churches on a Fast or Thanksgiving day. Calvinists, Athanasians, Hopkintonians, Arians, Sounians, Priest- leyeans, Horseleyans, Worcestrians, all most har- moniously agree in representing England as standing in the Breach in defense of Religion and Liberty, and Napoleon and the French as Despot, Oppressors, Tyrants, destroyers of Religion and Liberty, as sharks, Tigers, Wolves, Bears, toads, Aligators and Serpents. These things have affected and intimidated Numbers of your "American Federalists." At the same time, how shall we vindicate our Friends Jefferson and Madison? You and I know that they very early read and studied Fournaux's Controversy with Blackstone, and Priestley's Controversy with Black- 424 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. stone, on the subject of Ecclesiastical Establishments. They read also Blackburnes Confessional. From these and Lock and Price &c. they adopted a System, which they had influence enough to introduce into Virginia. They abolished the whole establishment. This was enough to procure them the characters of Atheists all over the World. I mean among the fanatical Advocates for Establishments, and these have been almost univer- sally the fashionable Advocates, till very lately all over the Christian World. But how shall we defend this political Administra- tion ? For my part I give it up. In every thing for twelve years it has been diametrically wrong. Their Friends (and I am one of them) will plead in their favour. Popular opinion, general sense, national sense and public opinion. If by all this is meant the opinion of a Majority of Numbers, throughout the seventeen or twenty States and Territories, it will not be denied. But as such considerations never have been allowed by me to justify myself or reconcile measures to my own Conscience or honour, I cannot admit them in favour of Jefferson and Madison, any more than in favour of your British Tory, or Essex Junto's. As if Heaven spoke in Revelation to Jefferson and Madison in condemnation of their systems, this Week has brought us the story of the two hulls. Rogers has shewn the Universe that an American Squadron can traverse the ocean in spight of the Omnipotence Omni- science and Omnipresence of the British Navy. He has shewn that American Seamen can manage and maneuvre great ships as well as small ones. I am accused of having said, in the Beginning of this year, that the Government were beginning the war OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 425 at the wrong end. Another edition of the Anecdote, reports the saying to have been "Tail foremost." It would not be strange if a third edition should express it in language still more vulgar. The War I justify: but the conduct of it I abhor. Not a word should have been said about Canada. The whole Resources of the Nation should have been sent to sea. If Canada must be invaded, not a foot should have been set on that shore, till we had a decided superiority of Naval Force upon all the Lakes. Trains of Field Artillery, and of heavy Cannon and Mortars. No rotten Carriages. Powder in abundance. Disgrace after disgrace. Disaster on the Heels of Disaster, Ruin upon Ruin will be the course. Money, Men, Munitions, Cloathing, Provisions, every Thing will be wanting if our Government goes on in this way. Is Dearborne, is Hull, is VanRanselaer, is Wade Hamp- ton, qualified for the vast system of War and Policy they are called to plan and execute ? Could not you have selected greater Statesmen and greater Commanders ? You may smile, or you may shudder, my Friend, at the Idea of a Northern Confederacy. But there is more danger of it, than you are aware of. If a different sys- tem is not adopted, a languishing disastrous War and a shameful disgraceful Peace will ensue. The Northern States will not bear this, and they ought not to bear it. I never saw Major General, Lieutenant Governor De Wit Clinton, and know nothing of him but from Print and Hearsay. Dr. Rush has ten times better pretensions to be President and I would vote for him ten times as soon. Yet if I knew that Clinton would cordially promote a Naval Power, I would vote for him sooner than for Rush or Madison, if I only doubted 426 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. their zeal or suspected their luke-warmness for that essential indispensable Arm. You misunderstood me. I did not say that Col. Smith is still his own Enemy. Far otherwise. In total Retirement, in Agricultural Labour and incessant read- ing, his time is spent. His heart bleeds for his country, and burns to serve it. To you I will say in secret, what is Hull, what is Eustis, what is Armstrong, what is Dearborne, as Soldiers or as Officers, to him ? He is as sensible of the Justice and Necessity of this War as you and I are, and I fear more sensible of the im- provident unskillful conduct of it; because he under- stands the subject better than we do. I have no hope that he will be employed; but it is to be regretted that such Talents, such Tacticks, such discipline and such experience should perish and be lost. But so it must be and I must be silent. He was not a sagacious Politician. He has been led astray into error by Chan- cellor Livingston, by Burr, and by Miranda. But who has not? He absolutely refused to have any concern in Burr's Washita Project, and protested against it. I long to see your Work on the Diseases of the Mind. Have you treated of The Demoniacs, the Maniacs, the Lunatics, the Epileptics, the paralytics, the Mysteries of the Old and New Testament? If you have I hope you have read Hugh Farmers essay on The Demoniacs of The New Testament. I read it with the greater Interest, because I have conversed with the very learned sensible, sociable, amiable and agreeable old Gentleman not long before his Death. When writing to you my pen never knows when to subscribe John Adams. Dr. Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 427 Quincy Septr. 6. 1812. Dear Sir,-Will your tranquilizing Chair exorcise Demoniacks ? Will it cure the Hydrophobia? I am sure our Country is possessed,-I am almost prone to say, of the Devil-but Hugh Farmer, my quondam Friend, reinforced by Dr. Mead and his great Ancestor the Friend and Correspondent of Dr. Twiss, convince me that I ought to say only-of a Demon. If your Chair can cast out Demons, or if it can cure the Hydrophobia, I wish every Man, Woman and Child in the United States were set in it long enough to heal these diseases. That the Nation has one or both these distempers is most certain from their abhorrence of a Navy and from their beginning the War upon Land or Sea before they had Army or Navy or Money, and before they pos- sessed enough of the confidence and affection of each other to be able to procure either. The enclosed letter from Col. Smith will speak for itself. I pray you to return it by the Post. Shall I publish it? in his Name and my own? This Man, and Brooks &c., &c., &c., are neglected ; and who and what is not promoted ? I know the sentiments of European officers concern- ing Smith's Military Talents. There is not an Ameri- can officer living half so much respected by the British Army as Smith. There is none more esteemed by Military Men in any part of Europe, who have ever heard his Name. I will mention one instance. Count Sarsefield, a very learned and ingenious Man, greatly esteemed and admired in England and Holland, as well as in France, a military Man from his youth, who was 428 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. in the Battle of Minden and Fontenoy, who ranked high in the French Army, a scientific and a practical soldier, became intimately acquainted with Col. Smith. He told me he had conversed with him frequently, that he had sounded him thoroughly, that he had put every question to him that he could think of, on purpose to see if he could puzzle him. And he declared to me, that he never had conversed with an officer in Europe, who was more prompt and ready in his answers or a more perfect Master of every movement of an Army in grand or in detail. This Man is lost to his Country, and Hull and Wilkinson &c., &c., &c. are gained. But he is my Son in Law, and that is a sentence of eternal damnation against him in the Creed of all Parties. Pray return me Smith's Letter, without loss of time. John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Nov. 14. 1812. My dear Friend,-Your volume will not produce answers or examinations or refutations : but probably Reproaches, vilifications and Lies and slanders enough. For there are no greater Liars than Men of Science and Letters, Taste and Sense. Try this observation in the civil, political, ecclesiastical or rather sacerdotal and phylosophical History of Chaldeans, Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, Zingisians, Chinese, Tamerlanians, Indians, French, Britons, Italians, &c., &c., &c., and you will find it true. Add Mahometans, Zoroastrians, San- choniathonians, Confucians, Druids, Bramins, Koulican- ians and as many as you can have patience to hunt. You will be accused of Materialism and consequently OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 429 of Atheism. They are all mad as I am, and we shall all see ourselves in some or other of your Theories and then we shall all call you a blockhead and swear that we are as rational Men as ever existed, as an Inhabitant of Bedlam once swore to me that he was. Thus much concerning your rational Book upon Madness before I see it. When it comes it will prob- ably make me rave a little more. But my dear Friend, let me add one observation in the sincerity of my heart. The subject you have chosen is one of the most important, interesting, and affecting that human Nature and terrestrial existence exhibit; and you will merit everlasting thanks of your Species, for your attempt to investigate it, whatever your present success may be. You ask me for " Details of the Intrigues that led to the permanent establishment of Congress at Washing- ton." I am not good at details. My Patience has not enough of Marble, Steel, or Adamant in it. Summaries, or rather Hints are better adapted to my Capacity. Congress was scarcely assembled and organized at New York in 1789 before Motions were made in both Houses to proceed to the designation of the Federal Dis- trict, the Territory of ten miles square, the National City. One Proposition was to establish it at New York, another at Trenton, a third at Germantown or some- where in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, a fourth at Lancaster, a fifth at Yorktown, a sixth at some place on the Susquehanna River, a seventh at George Town, an eighth at Alexandria. I know not whether Balti- more and Anapolis were not proposed publickly. They were certainly mentioned and talked about. But the present site was favourable to the Fortunes of my 430 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Friend Carrol of Carrolton and to Washington and Custis, and their favourite as much as Fort Washington on Hudson River had been once before. Rhode Island had not acceded to the Union. Twelve States only were represented by 24 senators. The before mentioned Motions were all debated with great Zeal and at great Length. When the Question was put, Twelve Senators were in the affirmative and twelve in the negative. The Vice President must de- cide. I gave my opinion, in every instance promptly and decidedly in the negative, from the first Question to the last inclusively of both. This contest continued a long time from day to day. Never in my Life was I more tortured and agitated. Such a responsibility was a serious Thing. Hitherto I had heard all with close attention but said Nothing but No, No, No, No, No, No. At last I arose and asked leave to explain my reasons for the constant and persevering votes I had given in the negative, to every plan and project. The Speech was not short: but the Points that I relied on were-The Time was not arrived to define the Ten mile Territory or determine the permanent seat of Government. The Geography of the Country and the Centre of Population was not yet sufficiently ascer- tained. The Government was not settled : the people and the House were too much divided, as well as the Senate. No Census was yet taken. I was for an adjournment of Congress to Philadelphia, and for leaving to time and more deliberate Investigation and consideration to enlighten the Legislature before they should decide upon the subject. Upon this the ques- tion subsided and lay dormant for some weeks. Robert Morris, who was then thought to be infinitely OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 431 rich, though I never believed him to be worth a groat if his debts had been paid, was extremely impatient to get to Philadelphia. The Advocates for the Columbian district and the Washington City, entered into under- hand Negotiation with Morris, and compromised ten years residence in Philadelphia for the permanent seat at Potomack, and were thus boosted up on their hobby by a single vote in Senate. Then Washington, Jeffer- son and L'Enfant, proceeded to plan the City, the Capitol and Palace. Though I was strenuously opposed to the whole system in every grade of its progress, yet Tom Paine has transmitted me to the World and posterity as cast- ing my eye over the great City, its cloud capped Towers and gorgeous Temples and Palaces, exultingly exclaiming, is not this great Babylon that I have builded 1 And I never had one Friend in the World to contradict the lying rascal: tho' hundreds were able to do it of their own knowledge. It was a great neglect and oversight in me, not to hire Puffers. I had the Anecdote of H's threat to write a History of W's Battles and Campaigns, from you, who had it from Miranda. I know nothing of the circumstances that led to it. In general, I have always understood that Hamilton lived with Washington very much as Lady Teazle lived with Sir Peter, and as Lady Mary Wortley Montague lived with her Husband. Every word you say upon a Navy cheers my heart. Miss Dexter, three days ago requested me to present her grateful respects to you and your whole Family. I am, as always, yours Dr. Rush. J. Adams. 432 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy December 27. 1812. Dr. Sir,-Letters ! What shall I say of Letters ? Pliny's are too studied and too elegant. Cicero's are the only ones of perfect simplicity, confidence and famil- iarity. Madam Sevigne has created a sweet pretty lit- tle amusing world out of nothing. Pascalls Provincials exceed every Thing ancient or modern ; but these were laboured with infinite Art. The letters of Swift and Pope are dull. Frederick's to Voltaire and D'Alembert are sickish and silly. His adulation of Voltaire is baby- ish. He knew nothing of Homer or Virgil. He was totally ignorant of the Language of both. Have mercy on me Posterity, if you should ever see any of my Letters. But, majora canamus ! Last evening I dined with about twenty of our most learned, most scientific, most tasty, most opulent, and most fashionable Gentlemen in Boston, at Mr. Peter Chardon Brookes's. As I am in- contestably the greatest Man [you know] in this part of the World, I am always placed of course, on the right hand of the Lady or Gentleman Host. The rich and honourable Mr. Thorndyke, a very well bred Man, really very much of a Gentleman, the great Rival in Wealth of my Friend Gray, was by the Master of Cere- monies placed next to me. When the most clamourous demands of Appetite began to be a little appeased, Mr. Thorndyke said to me "Sir," said Mr. Thorndyke to me, " you have been so long and so invariably the Friend and Advocate of a Navy, that these late victories at sea must have given you peculiar pleasure." The most accomplished, the most finished Courtier in Europe, you see, could not have more delicately touched the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 433 vein in my system the most susceptible of flattery. You will easily believe, it gave a spurr to my vanity, sett my imagination on the wing, freshened and quick- ened my memory, and set my tongue a running with mighty volubility. I assured Mr. Thorndyke that our Naval Conquerors had given me the most complete satisfaction. That I contemplated them and their im- mortal victories with the highest delight. "I thought," said Mr. Thorndyke, " it could not be otherwise ; but is it not surprising, that our Navy should have been so long neglected by our Government?" Nothing Mr. Thorn- dyke, that I have ever experienced in life, has given me so much constant astonishment, except the French Revolution and the universal enthusiasm in favour of it in Europe and America; as the general insensibility of this Nation, to the importance and necessity of a Naval Defence, upon the Ocean always, and since the Project of an invasion of Canada, upon the Lakes. "The experience we had of its utility, twelve or four- teen years ago," said Mr. Thorndyke, " and since, in the Mediterranean, and indeed in the Revolutionary War, one would have thought, should have been sufficient to convince the Government." My surprise, Mr. Thorn- dyke is as great as yours, that it has not convinced the whole Nation ; but there seems to be a general dispo- sition to forget everything that has been done at sea. "Why," said Mr. T., "I have a general notion that the little force we had in the Revolution was beneficial, but I was young and I wish we knew more about it: the Publick seems to have very little information of its History." If an old Mans Garrulity, Mr. T., could be pardoned, I could give you a rough sketch. A Captain John 434 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Manly in 1775 offered General Washington to go out and take him some prizes. Washington dreading the responsibility and doubting his authority wrote to Con- gress. Silas Deane made a motion to commit the Let- ter. I seconded the motion. But Oh ! the debate, the opposition, the Terror of taking the Bull by the horns. However in spight of all the learning, eloquence and Pathos of opposition we carried a vote of commitment by a majority, though very small. The Committee were Silas Deane, John Langdon and John Adams. We met and unanimous, in an instant agreed and re- ported a Resolution, authorizing Washington to fit out a vessel. But Oh! the opposition ! Oh, the tedious debate ! At last we carried it, by a Majority of one or two. Manley was fitted out and took Transports with Soldiers, Cloathing, Arms, Ammunition and the noble Mortar, which was called the Congress, and drove the British Army from Boston, and Navy from its Harbour. "Oh," said Mr. Thorndyke, "I have seen Manley, and remember the Story of the Mortar." The Mortar is still in being [I continued] and this success made our little majority more valliant and enterprising. We moved for a Committee to build, purchase, equip, officer, Man, provision, &c, a Number of Ships of War. After an obstinate opposition and a tedious debate, we carried this resolution by our small majority. John Langdon, John Adams, Governor Hopkins, Richard Henry Lee, Christopher Gadsden were chosen the Committee, Silas Deane having been turned out of Congress by his State. We met every night, and sat often till midnight, and in a few weeks had a Fleet at Sea under Hopkins who went and took the island of New Providence and brought home all the cannon OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 435 and public property. We were now able to carry a vote to grant letters of Mark. But the opposition was still as eloquent, pathetic, and tedious as ever. The Privateers and publick Ships were soon so successful, that Congress grew bolder. Some of the Antinavalists went out, and Robert Morris came in and proved a respectable Reinforcement of our Naval Majority. Con- gress now appointed a Committee of one for each State, and ordered Twelve new Frigates to be built at one vote. "Astonishing," said Mr. Thorndyke, "six and thirty years- ago!" " Pray, considering the present Population, Wealth, extent of commerce, Number of sea- men, Naval Skill, &c, what Naval Force could this Coun- try now produce in proportion to what you had then?" Twenty ships of the Line, and Forty Frigates, Mr. Thorndyke, could in my opinion, be now provided and supported with less difficulty, and be less burthensome to the Nation, than our Flotilla was then. "I believe it," said Mr. T. " Why then does not our Government exert itself in this way?" Why! Ah Why! said I, smiling, Why does not the town of Boston exert itself now as it did then ! One thousand British Ships were condemned as prizes in Judge Nathan Cushings Court of Admiralty in Boston in that War. "A Thousand! You amaze me." Look into the Records of that Court and you will see a thousand and odd. Boston was then all alive. Privateering was in fashion. Now that rich and powerful City has not a ship, that I have heard. Here the Colloquy ended. I was called to the Carriage to return with my Family to Quincy. You ask " Who is the Sackville, that holds the Lion by the Tail ? that holds the Patriotism and valour of our Country by the Tail? that has clipped the Wings 436 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. of the American Eagle in order to prevent her spread- ing them upon the Ocean ? that has broken her bill in order to prevent her picking out the eyes of the British Lion?" Shall I answer like my Countrymen? Who has held France by the.Tail? Who has held Holland by the Tail ? Who would have held England by the Tail, if she had been a Continental Power? The answer is the landed interest and its jealousy of the commercial Interest. The great proprietors in France are never satisfied with armies. They would multiply them without end ; but will never suffer much to be done for a Navy. They love to serve by Land but hate to go to sea. In Holland the four inland Provinces would never vote for ships, unless the three maritime Provinces would vote for more Troops. The Conse- quence of their mutual Jealousy has been the annihilation of their Navy, Army and Country too. We are going the same way. If this answer is not the point, let me add the southern and middle states held the Lion by the Tail the first 8 years of this Century and the northern are now holding him. If this is not particular enough I will be more personal. On the 16th. Jan. 1804 I wrote to a Correspondent "I wish Jefferson no ill; I envy him not. I shudder at the Calamities which I fear his conduct is preparing for his Country, from a mean thirst of Pop- ularity, an inordinate ambition, and a want of sincerity." Madison was his pupil, held the Tail of the noble Animal too long, and I fear has not yet entirely let go his hold. Thus I have answered your Question with more candour than prudence : and now you ought with the same sincerity to give me your sense of the question. I am forever your Dr. Rush. John Adams. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 437 Quincy Jan. 20. 1813. Dear Sir,-Answer or rather acknowledge my Let- ters by half a dozen at a time. I have a number of anecdotes to write you, more for the sake of having them copied by my Females and recorded in my Letter Book, than for any valuable use to you, tho they may amuse you. On Wednesday 13th. of this month I dined with our late Lt. Governor Gray, in Company with Vice Presi- dent Gerry, General Boyd, Commodore Rodgers, Cap- tain Smith and Captain Lt. Crane and other officers of the Navy. Dr. Griffin was our Chaplain. What a Group ! The officers of the Navy all understood the disease of the Mind in old age, so well as to acknowl- edge me as their Father, and I understood the mental disease in youth so well as to profess to be, as I really was proud of my Naval Family. Nothing could be more pleasant than this dinner of 30 or 40 Guests. But having engaged to bring a worthy old Gentleman and Lady to Quincy I was obliged to take French Leave at half after four, tho I should have rejoiced to stay till eight, and come home by Moonlight. The Conversation at my end of the long Table, was between General Boyd and Dr. Griffin across the Table, upon the Propagation of the Gospel in India. The General thought it was not in the Power of Man to propagate Christianity in Indostan. The Divine answered, " I believe you sir: but the Spirit of God." The discourse between me and Boyd was upon The Prophet, Tecumseh his Brother, and the Battle of Tip- pecanoe. I overheard a few words between Gerry and Madam Gray that I will not repeat at present. Boyd 29 438 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. said to me that the Indostans are a very good People, a civilised People, very different from American Indians and African Negroes. This I knew as well as Boyd or Griffin ; and farther I believe tho I did not tell either of them of it, that all the Cruelties of their superstitions, have not murdered half the Number in Proportion as the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, in proportion to numbers and time : No nor half the Number, that was massacred by the Laws of England in the Reigns of Henry 7, Henry 8, and Queen Mary. Oh God ! May Christians recollect the Histories of Albigenses and Waldenses of and Peter the Hermit; of Puritans, Anabaptists and Hugonots, of Jews, Moors, and Turks, before they attempt to propagate enthusi- asm and Superstition over the Globe. On the 17th. I dined with a Neighbour, Mr. Marston, in Quincy, with Commodore Rodgers and Captain Lt. Crane, in a Family Way. Here I must tell you a story. A Poet introduced himself to Boileau at Auteuil, next door to my Hotel when I lived there, and asked leave to read to him a Manuscript Poem which he had composed with great care and labour. Boileau heard in silence. When the Poet took his leave, and went away he met some Gentlemen to whom he said " I have had an Interview with Mr. Boileau, and I find him the most sensible, learned, ingenious, sociable, well bred Man I ever saw." These Gentlemen repeated these Praises to Boileau. "Upon my soul," said Boileau, "I know not the Man, I know not his Name. He came, sat down and read his Poem. I said not one word to him, not even Yes or No. He thank'd me for hearing it, and went away." Rodgers and Crane cannot say as Boileau did, for OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 439 they were very sociable and bore their part in conversa- tion very civilly and discreetly. But I know not but they may think I forced upon them my Poetry too obtrusively. Before dinner, Marston observed that " Europe would be astonished at the Exertions of our Fleet." I answered, Perhaps the most enlightened Naval People in Europe would not be so much surprised at them, as we were. This was a cold damper to Mars- tons Compliment, which was not explained till we were called to dinner. At Table I took the Liberty to enquire and was readily reminded that I had appointed Rodgers, the second first Lieutenant in the Navy and Crane a Mid- shipman in 1798, soon after Decatur. Marston said to me " It must be a great Pleasure to you to meet your Children." You may well suppose that I was not in- sensible to this. My answer was quick and fervid enough ; I assure you sir, I am very proud of my Naval Family. I asked the Commodore whether he had ever seen Monsieur Thevenot, the famous French Chef d'Escadre, one of the most scientific and experienced sea officers in Europe ? His answer was, he had not. You may remember sir, said I, my observation before dinner, that perhaps the well informed Naval officers in Europe would not be so much surprised at our Naval Victories as we are. I will now give you some of my reasons for that opinion. In June 1789 I dined with M. Thevenot then Intendant of the Royal Marine at L'Orient with the officers of the Navy in that Port. The Admiral, or the General as the French call him, Thevenot, addressed himself to me and said, "Your Country is destined to be the first maritime Power in 440 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. the World." I pretend not to prophecy what may happen in two or three hundred years. " Hundred years! In twenty years you will be a match for any of the maritime Powers of Europe." You surprise me General I have no such Ideas ; pray what can be your reasons for such an opinion ? " My reasons are very simple. You have all the means and advantages. You have the best of oak and Cedar for hulks, the best Pines for Masts and Sparrs, Tar, Pitch and tur- pentine, Iron and Hemp, all within yourselves. You have many Seamen now, and the best Nurseries : the Fisheries are at your door ; so much nearer to you than to any European Power, that you can imploy them to greater advantage; you have a considerable commerce already, which will spread every way, and be another abundant Nursery of Seamen ; and you have naval Architects equal to any in Europe." I know sir, that we have Materials and Seamen that may be employed in time; but I did not know that our Architects could be compared to those in Europe. "I am told that your Frigate Alliance, in which you came here, was built by an American. I have been on board of her and have examined her in every part, and you may depend upon it there is not a more perfect Frigate either in materials or Workmanship, in our Royal Marine nor in the King of Englands service." If all this should be admitted, General, which is more than I knew before, It will be a long time, before we shall think much about being a Naval Power. "What should hinder? What can be wanting?" The Will, General, if nothing else will be wanting. " The Will! How can the Will be wanting when you have so many advantages before your eyes!" The great Majority of OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 441 our People, General, love Land so much better than Water; are so much more covetous of great Tracts of bare Creation than of extending Commerce ; so much more ambitious of cutting down Trees, building Houses, planting Orchards, &c., than of military Glory by Land or Sea; that untill our Country is filled up, we shall never think much of Power at Sea. We have already had full Proof of this. You can have no Idea, General, of the difficulty we had in Congress to prevail upon them to build the Frigates we have:-indeed to suffer a Gun to be put afloat! I returned to America, remained three Months, and then was sent by Congress to Europe a second time. A crazy, leaky ship obliged us to seek the first Port we could find which happened to be Ferrol in Spain, on the eighth day of Deer. 1789. In a few days arrived in the same harbour a French Squadron of five ships of the Line from Toulon, consisting of an 84 and 80 and three 74 Gun Ships, under the Command of the Comte De Sade, who hearing that an American Minister was there sent me an Invitation which I accepted to dine on board his Ship with all the officers of his Squadron. At dinner, the Comte addressed himself to me, to the same effect and almost in the same words, that I had heard 5 or 6 months before from Monsieur Thevenot in L'Orient. Our Materials, our Nurseries, our Archi- tects were all enumerated and the same Prophecies of our approaching commercial Grandeur and Naval Glory. The Comte concluded with an observation that I shall never forget, "We have a Maxim among us Seamen, that with Wood, Iron and Hemp, a Nation may do what it pleases." My answers to him were the same in substance with those to Monsieur Thevenot. 442 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. I might have added another Anecdote, but did not, to convince Rogers that our Naval Conquests might not surprise the most intelligent officers in Europe so much as they do us American People. I might have added that in 1778 in the Boston Frigate Captain Tucker, we took a rich Prize in the English Channel, a Letter of Marque of fourteen Guns, called the Martha, Captain McIntosh, after she had cutt our rigging and broke our main yard by a broadside. McIntosh had served twenty years in the British Royal Navy; several of them as a Lieutenant. His curiosity was all alive to examine our ship and he was allowed freely to search every part. When he had fully satisfied himself he said to me, " I am astonished! I never saw a more compleat Frigate! There is not in the Royal Navy, a Frigate better built or of better Materials. The Guns in particular are better fitted and secured than any I ever saw in any Ship of War." " But," he added, with a sigh, "You are the rising Country of the World; and if you can send such ships as this to sea, you will soon be able to do great Things." You and I, Dr. Rush can now add to Thevenots and De Sades Catalogue of our Nurseries of Seamen, a more extended external Commerce, an immense coast- ing Trade, and a growing Navigation on our enormous Lakes and Rivers. Look to it, ye maritime Powers, that you do not provoke Neptune, by your Injustice, to feel the disgrace of his Empire, and transfer his Trident across the Atlantick. I have an old Mans fear that I have told you these Stories before. But to such a lover of his Country decies repetita placebunt. I had much more Conversation with Rogers and OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 443 Crane and all very agreeable. I must now afflict you with more gloomy Prospects. The inclosed Letters from Smith and Waterhouse, I send you without their knowledge. You must return them to me immediately. I am you Friend John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy Feb. 21. 1813. Dr. Sir,-Yours of the Sth. is yet unanswered. I beg your Pardon for hinting, tho in jest, at any Anti- novanglian Prejudice. I do believe you are as free from it as you ought to be, or as I am. Dearly as I love New England, I know it, and its faults. Your Idea of Pensilvania is perfect. In a few days you will see that I have been reviewing an old scene. In 1775, you will see how the Committee on Trade and on a Navy struggled. Debates, Delays, Embarrass- ments, Perplexities. In 1774 and 1775, when Con- gress first met, the delegates from S. C. were as patriotick, ardent, bold and resolute as those of Mass. Indeed their Constituents were so. But the moment they arrived in Philadelphia, they were besieged and surrounded with Quakers, Proprietarians and Anglo- manes. Israel Pembertons, Drinkers, Shoemakers, Allens, Penns, Chews, Bonds, Cadwalladers, Dicken- sons, &c., &c., &c. When armed ships came in Question, you can hardly imagine the opposition. My zealous efforts to promote a Naval Force were the most decisive and obnoxious Proof of my Design at Independence. We could carry votes but by small Majorities. Consider who 444 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. were there. Mr. Duane, Mr. Dickenson, Mr. Willing, Mr. William Livingston, &c., &c., &c., even my own Colleagues, Mr. Paine, Mr. Cushing were opposed to me. Mr. H. was President and was silent. After the Business was established he became ambitious of steal- ing the Glory of it: i. e. of the Naval Armament. S. C. were perverted by your Quakers and Proprietarians. Ned Rutledge was the most earnest, the most zealous, the most flippant and fluent of all the opposers. He boarded in Dr. Bonds House. Gadsden however was faithfull found. Immovable as a rock: stable as the mountains. Such men are born for the Public not for themselves. But Rutledges, Middletons and even Lynch flinched. "They are now all powerful in all our monied Institutions, except one, in our Libraries, Hospital and University; and possess universal professional Mercan- tile, maritime and mechanical Patronage." These are your Words applied to Philadelphia and Pensilvania. You may apply the same Words with the same Truth to Boston and Massachusetts. Mistake me not. I do not allow Waterhouse more splendid Talents ; on the contrary I believe with Profes- sor Silliman that Dr. Rush has done more lasting honour to his Country, and service to Mankind, than Waterhouse or even Franklin, Washington, Adamses, Montgomeries or Warrens. There is for you, vanity and all! Yet as Dr. Swift said of Arbuthnot, even Rush has his fault. I have no Idolatry for Politicians or Warriours. Who would not prefer Hippocrates to Alexander or Demos- thenes ? Every Discovery, Invention or Improvement in Science, especially medical science is lasting. Politi- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 445 cal and military glories transient as the wind, Solon and Lycurgus have passed away, and what good have they done ? It would be Republican Blasphemy to say that Pisistratus the Tyrant did more good than both. Yet History would countenance a doubt. Alass ! Defeat after Defeat! I hope these Defeats will teach us the Necessity of System, Subordination, Discipline and Obedience. That the entire Prosperity of every State depends on the discipline of its Armies ! by sea and Land. Our Naval Conquerors have proved this to the immortal Glory of our Nation. Boyd alone has behaved like a Soldier, I mean at Tippecanoe. Bainbridge's Laurells are as splendid at least as any and ought to have a glorious station in the Fleet upon the Stage in a late dream. Quincys Speech had too much Indelicacy, Indecorum and Vulgarity-many Truths indeed. But I cannot agree with him or you in the Folly, Madness or cruelty in the design of the Canada War. The design was benevolent and beneficent to Canada itself. Our Blunders and Defeats have been greater Misfortunes to Canada and Nova Scotia than to us! as Time will prove. The conduct of the War in the Legislature, The Executive and the Army I give up. But Canada and Nova Scotia must be severed from' Europe, or we never shall have repose. They would have separated themselves in a little Time. Now the Lakes must be commanded in all events. May favourable winds waft your son Benjamin in health, wealth and fame to the Bosom of his Family and Country. So prays his Friend. John Adams. Dr. Rush. 446 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy February 23. 1813. My Friend,-I lose no time in answering your Letter of the 15th., that my Confidence in your Love to your Country, the rectitude of your Judgment as well as your Intentions, and your Personal Friendship to me, is so entire, that you are at Liberty to make what use you judge for the Public Good, of my Name and my Letters. Personal and Local and State Reflec- tions and Allusions, in which I have indulged myself to you, without reserve and almost without Limits, you will of course suppress. Yesterday I put into the Post Office a Letter to you directly. And another of four sheets of Paper, also directed to you. But under cover to John Adams Smith, Counsellor at Law New York, with orders when he had read it, to seal it with a Wafer, and send it under my Frank to you, by the Post. It relates wholly to the origin of our Navy. In it a Letter from Vice President Gerry is quoted, but carelessly omitted. I inclose it with this, and you may publish what you please of that too. But return it to me. Your Letter to Waterhouse I have sent to him this Morning by my two Grand Daughters. I like your Plann for him. There is no Intoxication, my Friend in the Foresight of the Tumble Bug. There is none in the Foresight of the Necessity of the Dominion of the Lakes. What are the Lakes to me? What to New England? Little more than the Caspian Sea or Lake of Geneva. But they are of infinite Importance to the middle and southern states. Without them there can be no se- curity against the Indians ; to say no more. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 447 Winchesters Defeat is a dreadfull affair to Kentucky, Ohio, and all of us. But you and I and our Con- temporaries have no Right to reproach the present Government or the present Generation. We blundered at Lexington, at Bunkers Hill, in Rhode Island, New York, Long Island, Staten Island, Haerlem Heights, Fort Washington, Fort Lee, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, South Carolina, Virginia, Canada ! Where indeed did we not blunder ? except Saratoga and York, where our Tryumphs redeemed all former disgraces. My heart bleeds for the Frontiers, and much more for the unfeeling Insensibility which too much prevails in this quarter. Are we one Nation, or 18 ? Yours six times John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy March 23. 1813. My dear Friend,-Your Letter to Waterhouse in- closed in yours of the 16th. shall be sent tomorrow. With them came the News of the Hornets Glory. If our Nation had as much religion as Jews or Gentiles, they would consider these victories as a Revelation of the Importance and Necessity of a maritime defence. Lawrence is now enrolled with Hull, Decatur, Jones, Bainbridge in the Record of our Naval Conquerors. Immortal Glory to them both in this Life and that which is to come, both in the Heroes and the Christians Creed. For Mercy's Sake dont let Mr. Cary see my Ribaldry about Mr. Tompson, nor my Oath about the Committee of Deane, Langdon and Adams. Pray tell me what 448 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Work Mr. Carey is about publishing. Do not let him see any of my Nonsense. If you or he can find any sense you are Wellcome to that. Give yourself no concern to answer my Letters. Your employments are better and more important. I cannot bear to hear that examination of candidates is a dull employment. The honour to your Country and the everlasting benefit to this Nation ought to render the Fatigue itself sweet and delightfull. Your pupils will transmit science to theirs, to the latest Generation. The Tories are determined to destroy the Country as the Jacobins and Tories too were in 1800 by stopping the wheels of Government. If the good were not to be ruined with the evil I would not much regret it. But no Angel will warn Lott out of Town. Indeed where can he go? He must sink or swim with the Govern- ment and Nation with all the faults of both. It is a lamentable Thing that so little of the Talent and experience in War, which remains in the Country has been called into service. Yours ut supra Dr. Rush. John Adams. My Friend,-Inclosed is a Packet. Two Papers marked A. B., four Numbered i. 2. 3. 4. A Letter from the Vice President and one from Mr. Austin to him, 8 documents in the whole. Considering your en- gagements it hurts me to trouble you with the Reading of these Papers; but you will be so amused with them, that you would have reprehended me if I had suppressed Quincy March 29. 1813. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 449 them. If any of them fall within Mr. Careys Plan, he is welcome to use them : but in all events I insist in having all these Papers returned to me. Selman shall not be unknown to Posterity. Nor shall it be unknown with what metaphysical and mathematical Precision Congress, Massachusetts, and Washington, conducted our Quasi War with Great Britain in 1775 and 1776. The War was against the Ministry, against the Army, against the Navy, against their stores: but not against the King, the Nation, the Parliament, not against British subjects, nor private Property. I thought as Captain Seldon did. All appeared to me to be duplicity, Hy- pocrisy, Childrens Play. But I was a wild enthusiast, the worst of Men, and the most dangerous. So said the Quakers and Proprietarians of Pensilvania, and so thought the Tories in all the States and in G. Britain. Poor Selman and Broughton were stripped of their Prey. The Governor, the Judge were released and all the Public and private Property. Who can blame them for their Chagrin ? or Congress or Washington for dis- appointing them? But it seems the Public lost two of their best Naval officers by it. Pray return these papers to me, whether Mr. Carey will or will not make any use of any part of them. Yours, yours, yours John Adams. Dr. Rush. Quincy April 18. 1813. Dear Rush,-I thank you for the slip of a newspaper. On that subject my feelings are unutterable. The Day of the safe return of my Son and his Family, if I should 450 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. live to see it, will be the happiest day of my Life. I almost envy you the Joy on the return of your Benja- min. Thank him for my Samos Muscat. Tell him my Girls shall all drink his Health in a Bumper of it. I wish my sons and grandsons had been to Samos instead of losing their Lives and Labours as their Father and Grandfather did in Diplomatick Dulness, where Knaves find fortune and honest Men Ruin. In Edis's Gazette printed in Watertown, Nov. 13. 1775, is a Copy of "An Act for encouraging the fixing out of armed vessels to defend the sea coast of Amer- ica, and for creating a Court to try and condemn all vessels that shall be found infesting the same." If Mr. Carey will print this Law, of " the sixteenth year of the Reign of George the third, King, &c.," I will send him a copy of it, tho made at the expense of my worn eyes and trembling fingers. If he cannot or will not print it, printed it shall be in a Boston Newspaper, if I am obliged to pay for it, at the rate of Advertisements. Although there is an unlimited Licence for Libels, there is the utmost difficulty in procuring the Publication of any Thing of real value. I say it shall be printed at my own expense, because I think it one of the most curious, interesting and important Documents in the History of the World. It is the first Ray of Aurora. It is the Commencement of an Epocha in the History of Mankind. It is the beginning of a System which is to produce a Revolution on this Globe. It is to destroy the Despotism of Great Britain; the Universal Mon- archy of Great Britain ; the Universal Empire of Great Britain over the Ocean, and consequently over the Globe. Not indeed to produce a Revolution in the Empire OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 451 of the Ocean in favour of America, nor substitute one Despotism in the place of another, but to annihilate all Domination at sea and establish a universal and per- petual Liberty for all Nations Neutral and belligerent on that element. British Subjects and French Subjects, and Dutch Capitalists and Boston Citizens and New York Citizens and Philadelphia Citizens and Baltimore Citizens and Geneva Citizens and Italian Subjects and Spaniards and Portuguese, and Russians and Germans and Prussians, may be more plausibly suspected than their Govern- ments of participating in the Loan of Girard and Par- rish. I have searched the hearts of Capitalists and Money Lenders and Usurers and Shavers, too long to doubt that Loans may be obtained to any amount at seven or eight per cent. The Liberty of the ocean is the Pretext; but the Power of the Union The Object: as Calvinism and Catholicism were the Pretexts ; but the Power of France the Object of the civil Wars of France 200 years ago. So much in answer to your Question. Your time will be well applied in preparing your two Tracts for the Press. Posterity will do you Justice. "Sons will blush their Fathers were your Foes." So wishes and so believes, without a doubt, one who is and who was and who will be your Friend Dr. Rush. John Adams. 452 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy April 24. 1813. Dear Madam,-Yesterday Morning, hoping to re- ceive a Letter from your Husband, the Messenger brought me a Letter from Dr. Waterhouse with the melancholly, the afflicting account of his Death. There is not a Man out of my own Family, remaining in the World in whom I had so much confidence, for whom I had so tender an Affection, and whose Friendship was so essential to my Happiness. My Loss, and my sen- sibility of it can bear no proportion however, my dear Madam to yours. Most sincerely do I sympathize with you and your Family under this severe dispensation of Providence. The Worth of this dear departed Friend, his Talents, his Virtues, his services to his Country and to Mankind are far beyond my Powers to describe. They are fortunately recorded in his imperishable Works. For himself he had lived long enough. Not a doubt can be entertained for a Moment of his present Felicity. He has left you Madam for your Consolation Sons and Daughters worthy of him and of you ; ornaments to their Family and to their Country. I pray you Madam to present to each of them my cordial Condolence and best Wishes for their Prosperity. The Lot of Humanity cannot be changed or avoided. Inevitable Misfortunes must be borne, and ought to be welcomed as the Result of Wisdom and Benevolence, intended for our ultimate Benefit. So believes and so in this Instance prays Dear Madam, your sincere Friend and obliged servant John Adams. Madam Rush. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 453 Quincy, Feb. 10. 1812. Mr. Dreamer,-Your dream is out, and the Passage you read in the History that Richard was reading is come to pass, notwithstanding you said you believed no History but the Bible. Mr. Mediator,-You have wrought wonders ! You have made Peace between Powers that never were at War! You have reconciled Friends that never were at enmity! You have brought again Babylon and Carthage long since annihilated, into fresh existence! Like the Pythoness of Endor you have called up Spirits from the vasty deep of obscurity and oblivion, to a new acquaintance with each other! Mr. Conjuror,-In short the mighty defunct Poten- tates of Mount Wollaston and Monticello by your Sorceries and Necromances, are again in being. Inter- course and Commerce have been restored by your Magic, between Neutrals, whose Interests and Repu- tation has been long sacrificed by the Systems of Retalliation adopted by two hostile and enraged and infuriated Factions. Huzza ! You will say, but what does all this Rhap- sody mean ? Nothing more nor less than that a Cor- respondence of thirty five or thirty six years standing interrupted by various causes for some time, has been renewed in 1812 and no less than four letters have already passed between the Parties ; Those from Jeffer- son written with all the elegance, purity and sweetness, 3° 454 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. I would rather say Mellifluity or Mellifluidity, of his youth and middle age, and what I envy still more with a firmness of Finger and a steadiness of Chirography, that to me is lost, forever. I shall now flatter you or mortify you ; I care not much which. Two or three days ago, I met at Dr. Vinton's in this Town a Review of your Lectures. I lent the copy you sent to our Lt. Governor and his Lady, and have not seen it since. The Review is written I know not by whom, but I suspect by some young Physicians of Boston. I assure you we have a number of young Fellows in Boston whom you might justly be proud to boast, if they had been your Pupils. I had not time to read the whole, nor any Part with much Attention, but I was pleased to see and proud to see that they did you as much justice as I could have done in Conscience. They explicitly and decidedly acknowledge your Supe- riority to every other Physician that is or has been in America; but they remonstrate with a Modesty and diffidence, in them extreamly amiable and becoming, against your disrespect for the learned Languages. In this I have the honour to unite with them in heart, soul, understanding and voice. God forbid that Greek should ever be forgotten on this Globe, to which it is the greatest honour; the glory of all other Nations since it, having been derived from it. Compose yourself, Rush. Richard will do well. Young men must judge for themselves in the last resort. The authority of Parents must not always be absolute. I have pested as peevishly and fretfully as you do, against Johns Mission to Holland; his Mission to Russia, and even against his Professorship at the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 455 University. I always thought and believe it still not only that it would have been more for his Interest but more for the public good that he should have devoted himself to his Profession. I have grieved and so have all his Friends and enemies too that he did not indeed he could not accept the seat of a Judge. The World was not made for us old men. Young men have their views and feelings and must judge for themselves ; and I believe their decisions are more correct and impartial than ours. Adieu, John Adams. P.S.-I have made two new words, you see, Melli- fluity and Mellifluidity. As an independent nation we have as good a right to coin words as well as money as the English have or ever had. We are no more bound by Johnson's Dictionary, than by the common or statute or Cannon Law of England. I approve Jefferson's word " Belittle" and hope it will be incor- porated into our American Dictionaries. I hope how- ever that the English will not drive us to the necessity of imitating the Policy of our Ancestors, by rejecting Words merely because they are English, as they re- jected The Word Parish for Precinct, Church for Meet- ing, and in many other instances. We ought to have an American Dictionary; after which I should be willing to lay a Tax of an Eagle a Volume upon all English Dictionaries that should ever be imported. Dr. Rush. 456 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Quincy, May 13. 1812. Friend of 74,-Say what you will, that Man is in a poor case who is reduced to the necessity of looking to Posterity for Justice or Charity; and he who is obliged to fly to Newgate and to Cobbet for consola- tion, is in a more forlorn situation still. Col. P. is entertaining and instructing the Public by a new series of Addresses to the People, the fourth number of which I read in Dr. Parks Repertory last night, in which he charges Jefferson and Madison with Duplicity, Falsehood, Deception, Hipocracy, Enmity to commerce, Subserviency to Napoleon, concert with him to destroy Great Britain, &c., &c., &c. Witherspoon had Wutt and sense and taste; but his Maxim is not universally infallible. Scandal may be sometimes killed much sooner than it would die a natural death. You may be as wise as the old Scott with his written muffled tongue, by saying that Scandal is the Devil; the Author of all the Evil in the Universe; the cause of all the Wars ; dissentions and Revolutions, Duels, Suicides, murders, massacres on this earth. You will soon see the fruits of scandal in the votes of Massachusetts and New York. The Northern Poli- ticians, for twelve years past have retaliated upon the Southern Politicians, the scandal they published and recorded against me for twelve years before. I would subscribe 100 Guineas for a compleat edition of all the Scandal against me from 1789 to 1801, contained in the circular Letters of the Members of Congress from all the Southern and middle States. Do you remember the hellish Lies of your old Finley and your old Smilie. The Tory part of the northern Politicians have for OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 457 eleven years past retaliated upon the Southern and middle States their Lies and Scandals, their Impudence, Insolence, and almost, not quite, their Seditions, Insur- rections and Rebellions. There is a difference, Doctor Rush, between Truth and Falsehood, Right and Wrong, Virtue and Vice : Let us not endeavour to confound them. There is something hollow, something rotten, which if not ex- plained will end in Blood and Division. How soon did the scandal of your Tench Cox, your Augustus Muhlen- burg, your Peter Muhlenburg, die without being killed? And why was Augustus Muhlenburg my enemy? Because I did not comply with his servile abject Beggary of the Office of Treasurer of the Mint, which he had the creeping humility to beg of me by Letter under his hand: and because I bestowed that office upon Dr. Benjamin Rush against his, Muhlen- burg's solicitations and forty others. I have told you in former letters why Peter Muhlenburg joined with Tench Cox and his Brother in propagating Scandal against me. Hamilton would not let Washington, and Washington and the Senate would not let me make him a Brigadier General, and therefore he united with Tench , Muhlenburg, Pierce Butler and another of your Philosophical Scoundrels whose name I have forgot, to libel and scandalize me. If you can publish a compleat Treatise of Madness, you will instruct Mankind in a compleat System of Religion, Morals, Philosophy and Policy from the ex- pulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, to the last embargo and the last vote against an American Navy. By the way I ought to say one word more about Scandal. I know of no remedy against it, but Puffing. 458 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Ld Mansfield took a fancy to our Copely. He sat to him for his picture in every stage and station of his life, even to that of Min. Plen. in which he had been employed to negotiate some trifling thing in the diplo- matic way. He loved to chatt with Copeley. He said to him one day, " Copeley, your reputation and your employments and profits are not in proportion to your Merit." "My Lord," said C. "I do not complain. I am not dissatisfied with my success." " Copeley" said his Lordship, "you have not learned your Art, you have derived no reputation from the Puffers. You must find out and employ the Puffers." These Puffers, Rush, are the only killers of Scandal. Washington, Franklin-I will go no farther at present -killed all scandal by Puffers. You and I have never employed them and therefore scandal has prevailed against us. I have but one more word to say. My son-in-law, whom you mention, I assure you never spoke in my hearing one disrespectful word of any Man of ten or fifteen or twenty talents. I have never conversed with any officer who uniformly mentioned his General with more affection and respect. Steuben told Smith that Washington once said to him, " Steuben, that Smith was a stiff-backed young man," and this anecdote Smith told me. But not one word did he ever utter in my presence of resentment and disrespect to Washington living, or to his memory since his death. He once explained to me upon my enquiry, the story that Tom Paine has blazened all over Europe and America of black Sam's wife and a pretty girl from Jersey or New York or somewhere, which he said was whispered and snickered a little in the Army for a time, but without one word OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 459 expressive of his belief of the scandal. I never knew a more sincere Friend to Washington as far as I could judge, than Billy Smith. Jefferson has sent me his " Batture" a most sensible, learned and masterly Pamphlet. I hope Ned Livingston has opened Jeff's eyes on the subject of Jonathan Robbins, a scandal that ought to have been killed before it died of old age. Indeed I know not whether it be dead yet. A more infernal, wicked, malicious, unprincipled deliberate and cruel scandal never stalked this earth. Farewell Friend of 1774 for the present. Dr. Rush. John Adams. Boston April 14th. 1785. My dear Sir,-Give me leave to introduce to you the Bearer of this Letter Mr. Graham, and his Lady the celebrated Mrs. Macauley Graham, who have hon- oured this Town and highly gratified its virtuous Citi- zens by a residence of some Months past. They wish to shew every Mark of Respect to Pa- triots and Heroes in our federal republic, on the success of their late exertions in support of the Independence Dignity and Happiness of Man. I have the Honor to be Sir, your affectionate Friend & very humb. Servant Saml. Adams. Doctor Benjn. Rush. 460 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Great and good Friend,-Being desirous of con- firming between Your Majesty and the United States of America perfect harmony and a good correspond- ence, and of removing all grounds of dissatisfaction by a friendly discussion, I have made choice of John Jay, Chief Justice of the United States, to repair to Your Majesty in quality of their Envoy Extraordinary. From a knowledge of His fidelity, probity and good conduct, I have entire confidence that He will render Himself acceptable to Your Majesty: and will contribute to the utmost of His power to preserve and advance on all occasions the interest and happiness of the two Nations. I beseech Your Majesty therefore to give full credence to whatever He shall say to You on the part of the United States, and most of all when He shall assure You of their friendship and wishes for Your prosperity : and I pray God to have Your Majesty in His safe and holy keeping. Written at Philadelphia this fifth day of May, in the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety four. Letter of Credence to the King. G. Washington By the President. Edm : Randolph Secretary of State. H. B. S. To our Great and Good Friend His Britannic Majesty. Letter of Credence to the Queen. Madam Our good Friend,-I have named John Jay, Chief Justice of the United States of America. Envoy Extra- OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 461 ordinary to your Royal Consort: my knowledge of His good qualities gives me full confidence that He will so conduct Himself as to merit Your esteem. I pray there- fore that You will yield entire credence to the assurances which He will bear to You of Our Friendship : and that God may always have You, Madam, our good Friend, in His holy keeping. Written at Philadelphia this sixth day of May, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and ninety four. G. Washington By the President Edm : Randolph Secretary of State. Dr. Benjamin Rush-Philadelphia. St. Petersburg 15 June 1812. Dear Sir,-Your favours of 21 September and 15 Jany. last have both been duly received-the first in January, and the last a few days since by Mr. Willing. Immediately after receiving the first, I requested the Chancellor, Count Romanzoff to present to His Impe- rial Majesty your thanks, for the distinguished honour with which he had accepted the copy of your Medical Works, and the assurance of the animated zeal for pro- moting the relief of suffering humanity which this token of His Majesty's favour would cherish in your breast. The Count assured me that he should not fail to com- municate this expression of your sensibility to His Majesty's notice, which he knew would be highly satis- factory to him. The absence of the Emperor and of 462 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Count Romanzoff both from this Capital at present will be my only inducement for postponing the information of your renewed thanks in the letter last received, untill their return. I consider it among the fortunate incidents of my life to have had the opportunity of being on this occasion, the medium of communication, in the honourable inter- course between Genius and Greatness: between the labours of learning and science, and the favours of Im- perial Munificence. For this opportunity I am indebted to you, and it is to you that my thanks are due, for having afforded it to me. I beg you to accept them accordingly, and to be assured that I am with the high- est regard and respect Dear Sir, your very humble and obedt. Servt. John Quincy Adams. LETTERS FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON LETTERS FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON. Th. Jefferson being engaged in packing his books will thank Dr. Rush for the vols. lent him if he had done with them : he presents him his best compliments. Douignan de la vie humaine. 2 vol. Compendium of Physic. Apr. 3. 93. Washington Dec. 14. 1800. Dear Sir,-I have duly received your favor of the 2d. inst. and the melon seeds accompanying it. I shall certainly cherish them, and try whether the climate of Monticello can preserve them without degeneracy. The arrival of Genl. Davie here with the treaty is our only news. Mr. Elsworth is gone to England, and returns again to France to pass the winter in it's Southern parts for his health. Notwithstanding the annihilation of the Pennsylvania vote, the Republicans seem to have ob- tained a majority of 8 in the late election. If so the vessel of the Union will be put upon her republican tack, and shew us how she works on that. My re- spects to Mrs. Rush ; to yourself friendly and affection- ate salutations. Dr. Benjamin Rush Th. Jefferson. 465 466 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Washington Mar. 24. 1801. Dear Sir,-I have to acknolege the receipt of your friendly favor of the 12th. and the pleasing sensa- tions produced in my mind by it's affectionate contents. I am made very happy by learning that the sentiments expressed in my inaugural address give general satis- faction, and hold out a ground on which our fellow citizens can once more unite. I am the more pleased because these sentiments have been long and radically mine, and therefore will be pursued honestly and con- scientiously. I know there is an obstacle which very possibly may check the confidence which would other- wise have been more generally reposed in my observance of these principles. This obstacle does not arise from the measures to be pursued, as to which I am in no fear of giving satisfaction, but from appointments and dis- appointments as to office. With respect to appoint- ments I have so much confidence in the justice and good sense of the federalists that I have no doubt they will concur in the fairness of the position, that after they have been in the exclusive possession of all offices from the very first origin of party among us to the 3rd. of March at 9 o'clock in the night, no republican ever ad- mitted, and this doctrine openly avowed, it is now per- fectly just that the republicans should come in for the vacancies which may fall in, until something like an equilibrium in office be restored, after which " Tros, Tyriusque nullo discrimine habeatur." But the great stumbling block will be removals, which tho' made on those just principles only on which my predecessor ought to have removed the same persons, will never- theless be ascribed to removal on party principles. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 467 Imprimis I will expurge the effects of Mr. A's inde- cent conduct in crowding nominations after he knew they were not for himself, to 9 o'clock of the night at 12 o'clock of which he was to go out of office, so far as they are during pleasure. I will not consider the per- sons named even as candidates for the office, nor pay the respect of notifying them that I consider what was done a nullity. 2. Some removals must be made for misconduct. One of these is of the marshal in your city, who being an officer of justice, entrusted with the sacred function of chusing impartial judges for the trial of his fellow citizens placed at the awful tribunal of God and their country, selected judges who either avowed, or were known to him to be predetermined to condemn, and if the lives of the unfortunate persons were not cut short by the sword of the law, it was not for want of his good will. In another state I have to perform the same act of justice on the dearest connection of my dearest friend, for similar conduct in cases not capital. The same practice of packing juries and prosecuting their fellow citizens with the bitterness of party hatred, will probably involve several other marshals and attor- nies. Out of this line I see but very few instances where past misconduct has been in such a degree as to call for notice. Of the thousands of officers therefore in the U. S. a very few individuals only, probably not 20, will be removed, and these only for doing what they ought not to have done. 2 or 3 instances indeed where Mr. A. removed men because they would not sign ad- dresses etc. to him, will be rectified, and the persons restored. The whole world will say this is just. I know that in stopping thus short in the career of re- 468 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. moval I shall give great offence to many of my friends : that torrent has been pressing me heavily, and will re- quire all my force to bear up against, but my maxim is " fiat justitia, ruat ccelum." After the first unfavorable impressions of doing too much in the opinions of some, and too little in that of others, shall be got over, I should hope a steady line of conciliation very practica- ble, and that without yielding a single republican prin- ciple. A certainty that these principles prevailed in the breasts of the main body of federalists was my mo- tive for stating them as the ground of reunion. I have said thus much for your private satisfaction, to be used even in private conservation, as the presumptive prin- ciples on which we shall act, but not as proceeding from myself declaredly. Information received from France gives a high idea of the progress of science there. It seems to keep pace with their victories. I have just received for the A. P. society 2 volumes of Compara- tive Anatomy by Cuvier, probably the greatest work in that line that has ever appeared. His comparisons em- brace every organ of the animal economy, and from man to the rotifer. Accept assurances of my sincere friendship and high consideration and respect. Th. Jefferson. Washington, Dec. 20. 1801. Dear Sir,-I have received your favor of Nov. 27. with your introductory lecture which I have read with the pleasure and edification I do every thing from you. I am happy to see that vaccination is introduced and likely to be kept up in Philadelphia, but I shall not think it exhibits all its utility until experience shall have hit OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 469 upon some mark or rule by which the popular eye may distinguish genuine from spurious virus. It was with this view that I wished to discover whether time could not be made the standard, and supposed, from the little experience I had, that matter, taken at 8 times 24 hours from the time of insertion, would always be in the proper state. As far as I went I found it so, but I shall be happy to learn what the immense field of ex- perience in Philadelphia will teach us on that subject. Our winter campaign has opened with more good humor than I expected; by sending a message, instead of making a speech at the opening of the session, I have prevented the bloody conflicts to which the making an answer would have committed them. They conse- quently were able to set into real business at once, without losing 10 or 12 days in combating an answer. Hitherto there has been no disagreeable altercations. The suppression of useless offices, and lopping off the parasitical plant engrafted at the last session on the judiciary body, will probably produce some. Bitter men are not pleased with the suppression of taxes. Not daring to condemn the measure they attack the motive ; and too disingenuous to ascribe it to the honest one of freeing our citizens from unnecessary burthens, and unnecessary systems of officers, they ascribe it to a desire of popularity. But every honest man will sup- pose honest acts to flow from honest principles ; and the rogues may rail without interruption. My health has been always so uniformly firm, that I have for some years dreaded nothing so much as the living too long. I think however that a flaw has ap- peared which ensures me against that, without cutting short any of the period during which I could expect to 31 470 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. remain capable of being useful. It will probably give me as many years as I wish, and without pain or de- bility. Should this be the case, my most anxious prayers will have been fulfilled by heaven. I have said as much to no mortal breathing, and my florid health is calculated to keep my friends as well as foes quiet as they should be. Accept assurances of my constant esteem and high respect. Th. Jefferson. Dear Sir,-No one would more willingly than my- self pay the just tribute due to the services of Capt. Barry, by writing a letter of condolence to his widow as you suggest, but when one undertakes to administer justice it must be with an even hand and by rule ; what is done for one, must be done for every one in equal degree. Towhat a train of attentions would this draw a President ? How difficult would it be to draw the line between that degree of merit entitled to such a testimonial of it, and that not so entitled if drawn in a particular case differently from what the friends of the deceased would judge right, what offence would it give, and of the most tender kind? How much offence would be given by accidental inattentions, or want of information ? The first steps into such an undertaking ought to be well weighed. On the death of Dr. Frank- lin the King and convention of France went into mourn- ing, so did the House of Rep's of the U. S., the Senate refused. I proposed to Gen. Washington that the Executive department should wear mourning, he de- clined it, because he said he should not know where to Washington Oct. 4. 03. OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 471 draw the line if he once began that ceremony. Mr. Adams was then Vice President, and I thought Gen. W. had his eye on him, whom he certainly did not love. I told him the world had drawn so broad a line between himself and Dr. Franklin on the one side, and the resi- due of mankind on the other, that we might wear mourning for them, and the question still remain new and undecided as to all others, he thought it best how- ever to avoid it, on these considerations alone, however well affected to the merit of Commodore Barry, I think it prudent not to engage myself in a practice which may become embarrassing. Tremendous times in Europe ! How mighty this battle of lions and tigers! With what sensations should the common herd of cattle look on it ? With no partialities certainly, if they can so far worry one another as to destroy their power of tyrannizing the one over the earth, the other the waters, the world may perhaps enjoy peace, till they recruit again. Affectionate and respectful salutations. Th. Jefferson. Dr. Benjamin Rush. Monticello Aug. 8. 04. Dear Sir,-Your favor of the ist inst. came to hand last night. The embarrassment of answering proposi- tions for office negatively, and the inconveniences which have sometimes arisen from answering affirmatively, even when the affirmative is intended, has led to the general rule of leaving the answer to be read in the act of appointment or non-appointment whenever either 472 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. is manifested. I depart from the rule however in the present case, that no injury may arise from that suspen- sion of opinion which would be removed at once by a communication of the fact that there is no probability that Col. Monroe will quit his present station at any time now under contemplation. The departure of a person as his secretary not long since, at his particular request, proves he has no such intention, and certainly we do not wish it, as his services give the most perfect satisfaction. We had begun by appointing secretaries of legation, for the purpose of giving young men op- portunities of qualifying themselves for public service : but desirable and useful as this would have been, it's aptness to produce discord has obliged us to abandon it, and to leave the ministers to appoint their own pri- vate secretaries, whose dependence on their principal secures a compatibility of temper. I shall be happy to receive your pamphlet, as I am whatever comes from you. I have also a little volume, a mere and faithful compilation which I shall some of these days ask you to read as containing the exemplifi- cation of what I advanced in a former letter as to the excellence of "the philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth." Accept affectionate salutations and assurances of esteem and respect. Dr. Rush. Th. Jefferson. Washington June 13. 05. Dear Sir,-A considerable time before the receipt of your letter of Apr. 29, it was known here that Mr. Boudinot intended to retire from the Direction of the OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 473 mint, and as was expected, immediately it had therefore been made a question to the members of the adminis- tration who should be his successor. It was supposed that the duties of that office required the best mathe- matical talents which could be found, as well on account of the mechanical execution, as the difficulty of the problems constantly occurring on the mixture of metals. The appointment of Sir Isaac Newton in England and of Mr. Rittenhouse here with the universal satisfaction these appointments had given seemed to give the sanc- tion of the world to this principle of appointment, and therefore it was the general opinion of the members that Mr. Patterson should be placed at the head of the mint, which was notified to him. It is true that this had not always been observed as the principle of appoint- ment, but it was thought best to follow the best ex- amples. Altho the ground of this appointment is so distinct from your line of pursuit that it can give you no uneasiness, yet I could not deny to myself the satis- faction of explaining it. It is indeed far the most pain- ful part of my duty, under which nothing could support me but the consideration that I am but a machine erected by the constitution for the performance of cer- tain acts according to laws of action laid down for me, one of which is that I must anatomise the living man as the Surgeon does his dead subject, view him also as a machine and employ him for what he is fit for, unblinded by the mist of friendship. Accept affection- ate salutations and assurances of constant esteem and respect. Dr. Rush. Th. Jefferson. 474 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. Monticello Sep. 22. 09. Dear Doctor,-I have long owed you a letter in answer to yours of May 3, an acknowledgement of the receipt of the pamphlet on the use of the omentum, and congratulations on the satisfaction you must derive from having a son, entering, under auspices so prom- ising, the career you have run before him. I am not enough in these branches of science to decide on the soundness of the hypothesis maintained in the pam- phlet, but I have read it with pleasure as a logical in- vestigation of a curious question, and adding usefully to our knowledge of the animal economy. I am become sensible of a great advantage your profession has over most others, that, to the close of your life, you can be always doing good to mankind : whereas a retired politician is like a broken down courser, unfit for the turf, and good for little else. I am endeavoring to recover the little I once knew of farm- ing, gardening, etc., and would gladly now exchange any branch of science I possess for the knowledge of a common farmer. Too old to learn I must be con- tented with the occupation and amusement of the art. Already it keeps me so much without doors that I have little time to read, and still less to write. This must be my apology for the tardiness of the present letter. I find I am losing sight of the progress of the world of letters. Here we talk but of rains and droughts, of blights and frosts, of our ploughs and cattle ; and if the topic changes to politics I meddle little with them. In truth I never had a cordial relish for them, and abhor the contentions and strife they generate. You know what were the times which forced us both from our first OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 475 loves, the natural sciences. The interest I have taken in the success of the experiment, whether a government can be contrived which shall secure man in his rightful liberties and acquirements, has engaged a longer por- tion of my life than I had ever proposed: and certainly the experiment could never have fallen into more in- auspicious times, when nations have openly renounced all obligations of morality, and shamelessly assume the character of robbers and pyrates. In any other time our experiment would have been more easy; and if it can pass safely through the ordeal of the present trial, we may hope we have set an example which will not be without consequences favorable to human happiness. May we not hope that when the robbers of Copenhagen, and the ravagers of Spain shall be arrested in their course by those means which providence has always in reserve for the restoration of order among his works, the pendulum will vibrate the more strongly in the opposite direction, and that nations will return to the reestablishment of moral law with an enthusiasm which shall more solidly confirm it's future empire. So be it, and God bless you. Dr. Rush. Th. Jefferson. Monticello Mar. 6. 13. Dear Sir,-I received some time ago a letter signed "James Carver" proposing that myself, and my friends in this quarter should subscribe and forward a sum of money toward the expenses of his voyage to London and maintenance there, while going thro' a course of education in their Veterinary school, with a view to his 476 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. returning to America, and practising the art in Phila- delphia. The name, person and character of the writer were equally unknown to me, and unauthenticated, but as self-declared in the letter. I supposed him an Eng- lishman from the style in which he spoke of " his maj- esty" and because an American, without offence to the laws, could not now be going, nor be sent by private individuals to England. The scheme did not appear to me either the shortest or surest way of going to work to accomplish the object, because if the Veterinary in- stitution there be of the celebrity he described, it must already have produced subjects prepared for entering into practice, and disposed to come to a good position, claiming nothing till they should enter into function, or not more than their passage. I did not receive the letter until the day had elapsed on which the vessel was to depart wherein he had taken his passage: and his desire that the answer should go thro' you, is my only authority for troubling you with this, addressed too to you, whom I know, love and revere, and not to him, who, for any evidence I have but from himself, may be a zealous son of science, or an adventurer wanting money to carry him to London. I know nothing of the Veterinary institution of London, yet have no doubt it merits the high character he ascribes to it. It is a nation which possesses many learned men. I know well the veterinary school of Paris, of long standing, and saw many of it's publications during my residence there. They were classically written, announced a want of nothing but certainty as to their facts, which granted, their hypotheses were learned and plausible. The coach-horses of the rich of Paris were availed of the institution; but the farmers, even of the neighborhood, OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 477 could not afford to call a Veterinary Doctor to their plough horses in the country, or to send them to a livery stable to be attended in the city. On the whole I was not a convert to the utility of the Institution. You know I am so to that of medicine, even in human com- plaints, but in a limited degree. That there are certain diseases of the human body, so distinctly pronounced by well articulated symptoms, and recurring so often as not to be mistaken, wherein experience has proved that certain substances applied will restore order, I cannot doubt. Such are kinkina in intermittents, mercury in syphilis, castor oil in dysentery, etc., and so far I go with the physicians. But there are also a great mass of indistinct diseases, presenting themselves under no form clearly characterized, nor exactly recognized as having occurred before, and to which of course the ap- plication of no particular substance can be known to have been made, nor it's effect on the case experienced, these may be called unknown cases, and they may in time be lessened by the progress of observation and experiment. Observing that there are in the constitu- tion of the animal system some means provided un- known to us which have a tendency to restore order when disturbed by accident, called by physicians the vis medicatrix naturae, I think it safer to trust to this power in the unknown cases, than to uncertain conjectures built on the ever changing hypothetical systems of med- icine. Now in the Veterinary department, all are un- known cases. Man can tell his physician the seat of his pain, it's nature, history, and sometimes it's cause, and can follow his directions for the curative process, but the poor dumb horse cannot signify where his pain is, what it is, or when or whence it came, and resists all 478 OLD FAMILY LETTERS. process for it's cure. If in the case of man then the benefit of medical interference in such cases admits of question, what must it be in that of the horse ? and to what narrow limits is the real importance of the veter- inary art reduced ? When a boy I knew a Doctr. Sey- mour, neighbor to our famous botanist Clayton who imagined he could cure the diseases of his tobacco plants. He bled some, administered lotions to others, sprinkled powders on a third class, and so on. They only withered and perished the faster. I am sensible of the presumption of hazarding an opinion to you on a subject whereon you are so much better qualified for decision, both by reading and experience, but our opin- ions are not voluntary. Every man's own reason must be his oracle, and I only express mine to explain why I did not comply with Mr. Carver's request, and to give you a further proof that there are no bounds to my confidence in your indulgence in matters of opinion. Mr. Adams and myself are in habitual correspond- ence. I owe him a letter at this time, and shall pay the debt as soon as I have something to write about, for with the commonplace topic of politics, we do not meddle. When there are so many others on which we agree why should we introduce the only one on which we differ ? Besides the pleasure which our naval suc- cesses have given to every honest patriot, his must be peculiar, because a navy has always been his hobby horse. A little further time will shew whether his ideas have been premature, and whether the little we can oppose on that element to the omnipotence of our enemy there, would lessen the losses of the war, or contribute to shorten it's duration, the legitimate ob- ject of every measure. On the land indeed we have OLD FAMILY LETTERS. 479 been most unfortunate. So wretched a succession of generals never before destroyed the fairest expecta- tions of a nation, counting on the bravery of it's citi- zens, which has proved itself on all these trials. Our first object now must be the vindication of our char- acter in the field: after that, peace, with the liberum mare, personal inviolability there, and ouster from this continent of the incendiaries of savages. God send us these good things, and to you health and life here, till you wish to awake to it in another state of being. Th. Jefferson. Doctr. Rush. THE END.